An awareness talk on snakes, spiders, scorpions, and other common critters of the area was held last Wednesday, April 10th, at the Reserva Playa Tortuga.
The talk started with the director of RPT, Oscar Brenes, and followed by the anthropologist and herpetologist Cesar Barrio-Amorós. The talk also counted with the collaboration of Overton Pratt.
The objective of the talk was to summon the neighbors, not only from Ojochal, but from the entire South Pacific area, to talk about these species, of which there is a lot of disinformation at the popular level and create awareness about them.
Therefore, the speakers explained how to identify certain species, how to know if they are venomous or not, what are the places in which they are commonly found, how to act when bitten, among other important and useful information.
After the talk, all attendees enjoyed a dinner that was possible thanks to all the contributions that each person brought, both to eat and drink.
After the break, at dusk, a walk was held with a group of visitors guided by Reserva Playa Tortuga staff. The night walk lasted approximately 1 hour and a half, and some of the species that could be observed were: common opossum, four eyed opossum, cat eye snake, tree Boa, caimans, different frogs, lizards, birds, bugs and spiders. Some of the species photographed are in the following gallery:
Reserva Playa Tortuga is a non-profit biological research and education center formed in 2009 by community members (“citizen scientists”) and Costa Rican scientists.