Pygmy Anteater: the Acrobat

Scientifically known as Cyclopes didactylus, it is the smallest anteater in the world. But don’t be fooled by its size. Despite its modest length, the dwarf anteater is fully adapted to life in the treetops of Central and South America. With its prehensile tail, sharp claws, and excellent camouflage, it moves effortlessly through the heights of the rainforest, a mini-Tarzan, as it were.

The dwarf anteater is a true treetop athlete. It spends almost its entire life among the branches, where it can hang upside down with its prehensile tail, which is actually longer than its body. It uses its powerful front legs, equipped with sharp claws, not only to hold on, but also to collect ants and defend itself.

Fun Facts

• Extremely difficult to spot!
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  Length: 16–21 cm (plus another 16–23 cm tail)

• Weight: approximately 1.5 to 2.75 kg
• Coat: dense and velvety, golden yellow to brownish yellow, sometimes with a dark stripe
• Lifestyle: nocturnal, during the day it curls up in tree hollows for a nap
• Diet: mainly ants, supplemented with other small insects

Thanks to its warm camouflage color, it blends in almost completely with the greenery. One moment it is there, the next it seems to have dissolved into the canopy. In addition to sharp eyes, you need a dose of luck to spot one.

At home in our reservation

In Costa Rica, dwarf anteaters mainly live in humid lowland rainforests, among the tall trees and lianas, a kind of tropical playground for these animals. Here they find food, shelter, and safe routes through the treetops. Recently, this special species was also spotted in the Adopt a Rainforest reserve. So this little creature is also one of Adopt a Rainforest’s angels. A wonderful sign that our reserve, thanks in part to volunteers and donors, is actually functioning as a habitat for rare animals. Without active protection, animals such as the dwarf anteater are slowly but surely losing their homes. The fact that a dwarf anteater has been spotted in the reserve shows what joint efforts can achieve. But this does not happen by itself. Purchasing and preserving rainforest requires ongoing commitment and necessary support.

By adopting a piece of rainforest, you directly contribute to:

• protecting animals such as the dwarf anteater
• combating deforestation
• preserving biodiversity for future generations

The dwarf anteater may be small, but its story symbolizes something big: we can only do this together. Every contribution counts. This is how we ensure that these silent tree acrobats, and all other inhabitants of the rainforest, will still have a place to live in the future. And we’re not just doing it for them. A healthy rainforest also means cleaner air, a more stable climate, and a better future for ourselves. By protecting nature, we are also protecting our own health. Finally, we are keeping the little “angel of the banana plantation” alive for generations to come.

Help and Adopt rainforest!

Het bericht The dwarf anteater verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

November 3 to 9, the documentary will be screened at the Wildlife Film Festival in Rotterdam.

Told through the eyes of nature guide Gerald, the film shows how a young man with a passion for the natural world blossoms after Adopteer Regenwoud becomes active in his small farming village of San Miguel, nestled between banana plantations.
The documentary also clearly illustrates the foundation’s mission — combining conservation, research, and community-driven action to create a wildlife corridor that connects vital habitats and supports biodiversity.

The full documentary will be available from November 3 in Rotterdam.

Trailer ‘Eufonia’

Filmposter

Feeling inspired and want to make a difference? We’re always looking for support!

Join us and Adopt Rainforest!

Het bericht Documentary ‘Eufonia’: Trailer & Premiere 2025 verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Many people are a bit creeped out by vultures because of their specific appearance and the fact that they eat cadavers. However, vultures are indispensable to nature; they are real cleaners. Read all about vultures and why they are indispensable to the ecosystem here.

How do you recognize a vulture?

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  First of all, mainly by their bald heads. This is not random, nature has thought about this. A head without feathers is relatively easy to clean, which is handy and necessary after the vulture has rooted its head in a cadaver. This bald head of vultures also plays an important role in their thermoregulation. During cold weather, many vultures tuck their heads between their feathers with their shoulders raised. When it is hot, they spread their wings and stretch out their necks. This allows them to regulate their body temperature.

• Secondly, you can recognize vultures by their large body with broad wings. The wing muscles are rather weak in proportion to their body weight. This is why you usually see them hovering on thermals. Therefore, you will not often see them flying in the early morning. Once the air has warmed up, you often see them hovering in groups. Then they are looking for carcasses to eat.

Scavengers

Usually vultures circle above a found carcass for a time before descending. They generally have weak legs, so they rarely fly away with carrion in their talons.

Most species of vultures rarely if ever attack their prey. They eat dead animals, preferablly fresh. Their strong gastric juices can eliminate harmful bacteria and viruses found on such carcasses. Because of this, vultures fulfill an important role in the ecosystem. Namely, they help keep nature clean, and prevent the spread of deadly diseases.

Vultures often cover their legs with feces. This feces contains a corrosive uric acid that kills bacteria. This offers them protection when they walk over a carcass. Just goes to show how ingenious nature is.

Vultures in Costa Rica

• Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture (58-64 cm, wingspan about 160 cm)
• Black Vulture (Raven Vulture)
• Turkey Vulture (Red headed vulture)
• King vulture (71-85 cm, wingspan 180-200 cm)

The vultures in Costa Rica belong to the family Cathartidae (turkey and yellow-headed vultures), the vultures of the New World. They are found throughout most of North and South America. They use their sense of smell when searching for food. Hovering above the treetops of the rainforest, they can find rotting carcasses lying invisible under the canopy

Vultures cooperate

Not all vulture species have such a well-developed sense of smell. Other vultures find their food by keeping a close eye on turkey vultures, for example. When the turkey vultures go down, the other species follow. However, turkey vultures have a weaker beak, which prevents them from tearing larger and tough carcasses well. For this, they need the more powerful king vultures. In this way, turkey vultures can also easily reach the meat, so this interaction benefits both species. Vultures primarily descend on fresh carcasses. New World vultures do not build nests; they lay their eggs on bare ground, often on rocks.

Black Vulture

The black vulture easily adapts to conditions. It is a common species found in many different biotopes, including forests, coastal areas and savannas, as well as urban areas. However, they avoid dense rain forests and mountain areas.

Black vultures live in large groups. They are very bold and also frequent the outskirts of cities or garbage dumps. They find their food with their eyes and sometimes allow themselves to be led to food by the Red-headed Vulture. They like rotting food. They also like to eat fruits and nuts, or eggs, lizards and young birds. Parents may keep food in their crop so they can break it out to feed to their young.

King Vulture

The King Vulture lives in pairs or small groups of 5 individuals at most. At large carcasses, sometimes as many as 50 King Vultures come to feast together. The King Vulture can detect carrion with its sense of smell. It has a powerful beak with which it can process all kinds of carrion. Furthermore, it also catches live prey such as mice, small birds and lizards.

While feeding, the King Vulture is vulnerable to large predators such as jaguars and pumas. Due to its large body, the bird is unable to quickly detach from the ground and fly away.

Red-headed Vulture

The Red-headed Vulture lives mainly in open and semi-open areas such as forests, brushwood or meadows. It also likes to stay near water such as rivers, lakes or the ocean coast. The Red-headed Vulture has a good sense of smell, which also allows it to find carcasses lying under leaves. Its food consists mainly of carcasses; it rarely, if ever, kills its prey. The Red-headed Vulture prefers to eat fresh carrion. Because it does not have a strong beak, it sometimes has to wait to eat until the skin has decayed enough. The Red-headed Vulture often flies low above the ground, or even below the upper layer of trees.

Its main form of self-defense is regurgitating half-digested food. The smell keeps most predators at bay. If an enemy is nearby, the red-headed vulture will attempt to vomit in its face. Like many other vultures, the red-headed vulture also sometimes regurgitates its food in order to fly away more easily.

Lesser yellow-headed vulture

The little yellow-headed vulture’s menu consists almost entirely of carrion, including road kill and washed-up fish. Insects and other invertebrates are also eaten, so the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture is frequently found in recently plowed land, where the critters are easy to find. The Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture has a well-developed sense of smell, which it uses when searching for carcasses. The Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture usually lives solitary.

Indispensable to the entire ecosystem

As mentioned, due to their role as cleaners of nature and destroyers of bacteria and viruses living on carcasses, vultures are indispensable to the entire ecosystem.

Unfortunately, the habitat of this mighty bird is under pressure, due to large-scale deforestation. This is why it is so important that local conservationists can purchase pieces of land with support. Fortunately, this is happening more and more often, so that illegal logging can be prevented and larger areas are protected from the construction of large-scale plantations.

Do you also want to contribute to conservation? Help us and adopt a piece of rainforest. Every piece of protected rainforest helps.

Want to read more about other species of birds, animals and news from the foundation in Costa Rica? Then read our other blog posts.

Het bericht Vultures in Costa Rica verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Jaguar Tree

Locals call the recently acquired area “Palo Tigre.” This means “Jaguar tree.” In fact, on this plot there is a tree with several jaguar markings on the trunk. How cool: This tree is used as a scratching post by the Jaguar!

Cooperation with the local government

Quite soon after purchasing the new plot, we were approached by the Costa Rican government (SINAC). They needed to plant 10,000 trees to compensate for the widening of the highway between San José and Limon. Palo Tigre would be a perfect location to carry out this project. The foundation regularly has good contact with SINAC for different conservation initiatives. Thus, our good rapport created a new collaboration. The Costa Rican government, together with the coordinating party CCT ( Tropical Science Center) and the local team from the Indian reservation that we trained last year will plant the trees. This will provide additional employment again this year.

Planting trees with a scientific design

Professor Edwin Pos of Utrecht University also heard of the plan to plant trees, and suggested that it be done according to a specific research design, with the goal of studying ecological succession in tropical forests. The effects of density and diversity on tree growth and interaction will be examined. This information will help to decide with how many trees of which species the most natural and diverse forest is generetad, and thus how to make reforestation projects in the tropics successful in the most efficient and effective way possible.

Why is this research needed?

A deforested area, if left completely alone, eventually becomes forest by itself, however, this takes an incredibly long time because of the often present stiff grass where tree seeds have difficulty germinating. Planting trees accelerates this process, but purchasing and planting trees is costly. Also, large quantities of native tree species for planting are not always available. Experts believe that if areas are partially planted, the empty spaces in between will develop naturally, ultimately creating a more diverse forest for less money. Win-win, in other words.

What we ultimately want to know is how many trees of which species we can best plant, and how big the empty spaces should be to get the best effect. Professor Edwin Pos of Utrecht University has devised an innovative experimental research design where this can be figured out.

Something to be proud of

Thus the new plot is not only an important bridge between the reserve and the National Park, but also an opportunity for scientific research. It also provides additional local involvement and employment and we are working with various parties on a beautiful form of nature restoration. We can all be quite proud of that!

Do you want to read more about the latest developments? Check out our news

Het bericht Big news: We are going to plant trees together with the local government of Costa Rica! verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Schreurs

In Costa Rica, you can’t ignore them: the Oophaga pumilio. Pumilio means dwarf, and although they are barely 3 cm tall, it is hard to miss the poisonous strawberry frogs. In English, they are called Strawberry Poison Dart frogs because indigenous peoples used to use their poison to makepoison darts. They are also affectionately called the “blue jeans frog,” because they often look like red frogs in jeans. Although they are by no means all the same colors. There are some that are completely red or blue, rather yellow, green or orange, or with black stripes or dots. In total, there are some 15 to 30 color variations.

Stolen poison

Those colors are there to scare off possible attackers, they signal: “Hey, I’m poisonous! You don’t want to eat me!”. Except for the females, who love it. Research shows that the females look for a male who have the same colors as their own parents. Females are much less attracted to poison dart frogs with different colors. Probably for survival reasons, because when the colors mix, their message to the predators  and  their chances of survival diminishes as well.

This message, by the way, is not a lie. The little frogs are quite poisonous. The toxins on their skin attack the heart and neurological system. The victims experience convulsions, paralysis and eventually death. Of course it is best to stay away from frogs, for everyone’s good, but you won’t die right away if one jumps on your feet. Their poison is especially effective if you eat the frogs, or if the poison gets into open wounds. Another poison frog, the golden arrow poison frog, is known to have enough venom to kill an adult human.

By the way, strawberry frogs don’t make all that poison themselves. The frogs eat ants, centipedes and mites among other things, and recycle their poison. Consequently, frogs kept as pets often lose their venom because they are not fed the proper diet. And speaking of diet, frogs do love a tasty snack, for example, they eat up to 14 times an hour!

Because of the venom, the frogs hardly have any natural enemies. So far, only the fire-bellied snake is known to be a threat. And humans of course, because of habitat loss for the frogs. Although humans are also fans of the frog, considering scientists are synthesizing their venom to market as a muscle relaxant, heart stimulant and painkiller!

Gummi bears

The frogs can be found in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama and spend their time among the leaves on the forest floor of tropical rainforests, although you may also occasionally see them climbing up lianas or trees. Unlike most amphibians, they are active during the day. Frogs are territorial and both males and females fight each other to defend their territory from intruders. Although fighting without claws or teeth is quite difficult. Doctor Yusan Yang, who studies frogs, compared it to a wrestling match between gummy bears. A wrestling match that can last as long as 20 minutes.Tthe frogs communicate about their territory, and their wild love plans through vibrations. For example, by tapping their middle toe.

Caring parents

In Strawberry poison dart frogs, there is an amazing amount of parental care. The mother lays 2 to 5 eggs on leaves or on the axillary buds of bromeliad plants. This is very few, compared to other frogs that lay hundreds of eggs! To compensate, they lay eggs several times during the rainy season (from May to November), with a maximum of once a week. During this period, the father waters the different puddles, with water from his cloaca. After 7 to 10 days, the eggs hatch and mom carries the tadpoles one by one on her back to a separate puddle high in the trees. Like water left in a leaf or between the roots of a plant. Just as well that mom gives them each their own puddle, because other species of poison dart frogs are known to exhibit cannibalistic tendencies as tadpoles. Fortunately, then, mom keeps them apart and lays unfertilized eggs with the tadpoles to serve as food. The mother makes her rounds daily to feed the little ones. She feeds only her offspring because even though other tadpoles beg for eggs, the strawberry frog can distinguish its own offspring by their unique vibrations. And so the parents take care of their offspring for at least a month before they go from tadpole to frog.

Incredible but true, strawberry frogs can live up to 15 years in captivity! In the wild, this is less clear.

Curious about more rainforest stories? Visit our blog!

Het bericht Strawberry poison dart frog verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Diet

In the wild, howler monkeys live to be 15 to 20 years old. The monkey’s diet consists mainly of leaves, which of course is not the best source of energy. Therefore, the monkey also spends large parts of the day while resting. Moreover, they should not eat too much from the same tree, as some leaves are slightly poisonous. So they are changing trees regularly. In addition to leaves, they also eat fruits, nuts and flowers. The monkeys’ sense of smell is very well developed, so well in fact that they can smell ripe fruit from 2km away. This is partly due to their round, wide-open nostrils. They rarely drink, as they get most of their moisture from food. Only when it is very dry they occasionally descend from their tree to search for water.

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Why the roar?

Their roar is an energy-saving way to communicate with other monkeys in the troop, as well as with competitors. In the morning and evening, they roar to mark their territory, and their roar is answered by other groups nearby. And although howler monkeys are strictly vegetarian, and generally not known to be aggressive, that roar can scare people quite a bit. Not surprising when you know that the sound can be heard up to 5 kilometers away. To roar so loudly, the monkeys have a hollowed-out hyoid bone near their vocal cords. A bone that all monkeys have, but that in howler monkeys is enlarged several times. It is mainly the males that you hear; the females also vocalize but are not as loud.

Troop animals

By the way, such a troop of howler monkeys can have up to 40 members, although about 15 is more average. The monkeys in a troop are usually not related to each other, because as soon as they reach sexual maturity they are expelled from the troop. The troop has a dominant male and several females with whom it mates. Despite not having a set mating season, most births are in the second half of December and in January. Pregnancy lasts six months, after which the baby remains close to mom for about 4 months. From about 10 weeks of age, the young begin to search for food on their own.

A riddle for science

By the way, did you know that there had been almost no apes in South America? All the native ape species of the Americas died out in the Eocene, some 35 million years ago. The ancestors of today’s New World came from North Africa. And given the distance and lack of fossils, it is unlikely that they made that trip by land, so now the hypothesis is that they crossed the ocean. Notswimming, of course, but clinging to driftwood, or on islands of torn-off pieces of land. At that time the sea level was even lower, so the journey would have taken “only” about 10-13 days. Too crazy to be true? Only future discoveries and science will be able to tell!

Foundation Adopt Rainforest has been working for more than 10 years to protect the habitat of these special howler monkeys. Would you also like to contribute to this effort? You can easily do so by adopting a piece of rainforest for these wonderful animals. You can do this for as little as €2.50 for a square meter. Adopt here

Het bericht The mantled howler monkey verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Many people think the ants cut off the leaves to eat for themselves, but nothing could be further from the truth. The ants cut off the leaves and transport them to a fungus in their nest. A partnership with quite a history, it turns out.

From survivor to farmer

But how does that fungus work and how did ants ever get there? According to genetic research, Attini ants began farming about 50 million years ago. Just for comparison, as humans we only started farming about 12,000 years ago. All 250 species of Attini ants known in the world breed fungi. Among the leaf-cutter ants the fungus is completely domesticated, not found outside the nests and completely dependent on the good care of the ants. Just as you shouldn’t let most dairy cows or lap dogs loose in a wild landscape anymore either.

Ants started farming at the same time that dinosaurs went extinct. When with the extinction of all kinds of plants, food was no longer so readily available, they switched to keeping fungi. After all, those did like the conditions at the time. So it was a smart move by the ants to switch to fungi as a food source. Meanwhile, the ants have physically evolved to the point where they can no longer live without the fungi.

Taking care of your food

When you look at a colony of ants, you quickly see that there are ants of all different sizes. The largest ants are the scouts, searching for suitable flowers and leaves, the middle ants use their powerful jaws to cut off and transport pieces of leaves. Their mandibles vibrate up to 1,000 times per second for this purpose, so they are as effective as a chainsaw. Over time, the mandibles wear out and at this point the ants change their job and become leaf carriers. The smallest ants chew the leaves into a mush that the fungus can digest. In addition, the smallest ants also nurse the fungus. The largest ants can weigh hundreds of times as much as the smallest ones. In addition, of course, there are many other roles such as queen, soldiers, waste pickers, leaf inspectors, pest control, etc.

As soon as a young queen starts her own colony, she takes a piece of the fungus from her old nest into her oral cavity. But it is difficult as a new queen to build a kingdom. Many try, few succeed!

Top Athletes

It’s a powerful thing they do, those leaf-cutting ants. In one night, they can strip an entire tree of its leaves. Moreover, they can carry 10 to 50 times their own weight with their jaws. To put this into perspective, this is like trying to carry an adult grizzly bear between your teeth. Although that one probably does struggle a bit more.

Het bericht Leaf-cutter Ants verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Update First Aid

My first reaction when I heard that Iris wanted to do an internship in Costa Rica was enthusiasm, my second concern. Of course it’s a tremendously fun opportunity to do an internship in such a beautiful country, with so much nature and such great biodiversity. But as a concerned fat

her, I had some reservations….

So I took action right away. I contacted the Work with Nature Foundation (the internship provider) and listened to how the stay was arranged, and how they ensure the safety and health of the students.

One of the topics that came up was first aid training for the staff and guides. Coincidentally, I provide first aid training in addition to my work, and visiting my daughter gave me the opportunity to do so for the foundation!

Design of the training

To tailor the training to the risks, I wanted to know how the students live and work at the project in Costa Rica. Key issues were: high temperature and humidity, lots of rain and mud in the rainy season, poor terrain due to vegetation and differences in elevation, day and night observations and hikes, poisonous plants, insects and reptiles.

Based on this, I set up a training based on Red Cross first aid and sports first aid courses and the MARCH Protocol, a treatment program from the U.S. Army aimed at treating trauma.

First aid kit

It was agreed with the foundation that I would train the leaders and guides. I felt it was important to get them ready to act right away. To do this, together with the startup “First 15,” I provided them all with an individual first aid kit containing a simple instruction card, a tourniquet, nitrile gloves, a trauma dressing, a CPR mask and a thermal blanket.

First 15 helps people act properly in the first 15 minutes after an accident. They sponsored the training by donating a good number of kits and additional demonstration equipment. Furthermore, I donated the bags for the first aid kits from my own BV, as well as the CPR doll for the training and additional materials to fill the bags.

The Training

The training went well despite having to be translated into Spanish. The participants practiced successfully with the donated materials.

A few things struck me:

• In a Spanish-speaking country, Staying Alive is not the best song to convey a rhythm of 110/120 BPM. For CPR/heart massage, that is the recommended rhythm! So a tip is to use a song that fits within a country’s music culture. Google “CPR song” and you will get plenty of alternatives from which to choose.
• My experiences with the First 15 tourniquet have been very good. The First 15 tourniquet, with elastic Velcro and simple buckle, was quite a bit easier than other alternatives. The instruction “pull as hard as you can until you no longer feel a pulse in your wrist or ankle” was sufficient.
• During the evacuation drill, the guides showed themselves to be “Masters of the Machete.” In a few minutes they made a stretcher with which they could safely transport a victim.

All in all, a fun day with positive results and reactions of the participants to the training!

“Buy a piece of rainforest!” 

I had two reasons for writing this piece: the training and the new insights I gained about conservation through small-scale actions.

I used to see advertisements to buy a piece of rainforest and support conservation. I always thought, “Yeah , right”, “What difference is that going to make!”.

I can now say that I have seen with my own eyes that it works: The Adopt Rainforest Foundation has purchased so much rainforest in recent years that they have created a green corridor between the important Barbilla National Park and the beautiful Cabecar Indian Reservation. As a result, an uninterrupted strip of nature now exists for nature to use. This was the puzzle piece that nature needed to cross Costa Rica. Perhaps a relatively small initiative but with great impact.

Meanwhile, Iris has successfully completed her internship, I have experienced what real nature looks like, and the foundation’s staff goes out with a well-stocked first aid kit and the right knowledge. And I bought a piece of rainforest because I have seen that it works!

Robert Klingens, father of HAS Den Bosch student Iris.

Het bericht Student’s father gives first aid training in the rainforest of Costa Rica verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.

Reserve expansion

However, due to the growth of Adopt Rainforest and the latest purchase of 65 hectares, the foundation now owns an area of 230 hectares of rainforest that it protects. This is so large that it is not feasible for the project manager to monitor this on a weekly basis in addition to all his other duties. To ensure that the reserve remains well protected we have enlisted the help of two park rangers. It is a job you prefer not to do alone, because you are sometimes several hours walk away from the village.

Local help

Dennis and Gian Carlos are two acquaintances of the foundation. Both live with their families in the neighboring village of San Miguel and have been involved from the start of the project. They regularly help with jobs such as the reforestation project and keeping the trails through the reserve clean. Two boys who have been traversing this large area since childhood and know everyone in the area. We are therefore super happy that they want to take on the task as park rangers!

First visit to the reserve

Last week Dennis and Gian Carlos made their first visit to the reserve as rangers. They placed new signs at several strategic points (see photo above). In addition, they performed overdue maintenance on the land boundaries. Each week they visit a different area. When they encounter special animals or plants, of course they try to take a photo or video to share with us. In this video the Green Macaw can be heard. A beautiful rare parrot that is threatened with extinction.

Protection of the reserve

We at the Adopt Rainforest Foundation are proud of this beautiful step to ensure the protection of the reserve. And that we can offer Dennis and Gian Carlos this job. Without the help of local people we would never have come this far. Great that Dennis and Gian Carlos want to help us protect this beautiful rainforest!

Several funds have helped us fund two park rangers.

Would you also like to contribute to this or a similar project? If so, please contact us.

Het bericht Adopt Rainforest deploys park rangers to protect rainforest verscheen eerst op Adopteer Regenwoud.