The wildlife of Costa Rica comprises all naturally occurring animals, fungi and plants that reside in this Central American country. Costa Rica supports an enormous variety of wildlife, due in large part to its geographic position between North and South America, its neotropical climate, and its wide variety of habitats. Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 species, which represent nearly 5% of the species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.[1]
One of the principal sources of Costa Rica's biodiversity is that the country, together with the land now considered Panama, formed a bridge connecting the North and South American continents approximately three to five million years ago. This bridge allowed the very different flora and fauna of the two continents to mix.[2]
- ^ "Biodiversity in Costa Rica". Archived from the original on 2011-11-18. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
- ^ Stiles, Gary Slater and Alexander F. Skutch. A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1989.