Costa Rica Guide

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gabrielgartner
Posts: 56
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 6:41 pm
Location: Santa Monica, CA

Costa Rica Guide

Post by gabrielgartner »

I'm looking for a good guide on Costa Rican herps. Size is irrelevant (does not need to be carried in the field). I already have the Savage tome "Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica". I'm looking for something with a few more plates/images of various herps.

Thanks in advance,
Gabriel

I posted this in the "reading room" but figured this forum gets more traffic.
RoadCruiser
Posts: 5
Joined: October 28th, 2016, 1:13 pm

Re: Costa Rica Guide

Post by RoadCruiser »

I'm not sure if this is the same book you already have, but the field guide that I found most useful on my 6-week expedition was one that I bought in the capital, San Jose.
It is titled:
"Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica" by Twan Leenders
ISBN 0-9705678-0-4
A Zona Tropical Publication
It is a typical field guide format with great plates, drawings, and information. It was small enough that I kept it in my pack and never once complained about the weight.
Good luck on your trip and hope you find everything you're looking for!!

Cheers, Rick
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Mark Brown
Posts: 567
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 2:15 am
Location: Austin, TX

Re: Costa Rica Guide

Post by Mark Brown »

I recently got The Venomous Snakes and their Mimics of Panama and Costa Rica, by Ray, Ruback and Knight. A bit on the sparse side when it comes to verbiage but still not a bad book. She ends up describing quite a few non-venomous species, since it seems that a large proportion of snakes in the area are venomous mimics (more or less).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14935 ... UTF8&psc=1

And, of course, it's hard to beat Campbell's Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801441412/re ... g=UTF8&me=
apodemus
Posts: 8
Joined: April 12th, 2011, 5:56 pm

Re: Costa Rica Guide

Post by apodemus »

It only covers amphibians (reptile book is in the making still) but by far the most up-to-date and complete guide available at the moment is this one: https://www.amazon.com/Amphibians-Costa ... s=leenders
Matt Cage
Posts: 128
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 1:04 pm
Location: Denver, CO

Re: Costa Rica Guide

Post by Matt Cage »

I have all that have been mentioned in both threads and all are great options. The new Twan Leenders Amphibian book is great. Guyer's La Selva book is a great guide if you are going to be in the Caribbean side.

Someone else did not like this book in the other thread. The book is tiny and has very non-specific range maps, but it has newer taxonomy and will help you ID stuff in the field. For $11, you can't go wrong.
https://www.amazon.com/Amphibians-Repti ... costa+rica

This is a very good guide with great photos:
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Snak ... costa+rica

This is a great book, but the CR snake expert. It's quite rare right now and expensive. I saw some for sale recently for $60.
https://www.amazon.com/Serpientes-Costa ... costa+rica
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