Delightful creatures of Costa Rica

I had fun making a trailer for the animal videos I took in Costa Rica, mainly in and around beautiful Manuel Antonio. I also took a lot of photos, which you can see after the jump. One of the animals isn't real. Can you tell which one? (Click images to embiggen)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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mercator

I’m guessing the jaguar is the fake.
Antinous / Moderator

Isn’t that a basilisk in the second photo?
Anonymous

The grasshopper is made of a coconut plant frond, it’s organic origami
TimmoWarner

I particularly like the insect photos here.

I also guess the jaguar isn’t real (or at least isn’t alive).
mr.skeleton

That leafy twig fellow is just some leafy twigs!
Richard

The Roger Kaputnik credit was a nice touch.
- Anonymous
  
  …and Melvin Potrzebie…
Anonymous

It’s the ants!? They’re painted on?
Layne

Took a second, but the leaf-insect was still pretty convincing, only because there’s so many amazing specimens there. And the Okapi and the monkeys are pretty entertaining on their own.

Matt Simon, an awesome amateur entomologist wrote up an in-depth look at a few of the insects he found there:
http://wildparty.typepad.com/.services/blog/6a00e54efefac8883300e54efefacb8833/search?filter.q=costa
Anonymous

You can buy the leafy twig grashopper for just a dollar at any stop light in San Jose, right?
Anonymous

Did you edit this in the new version of Final Cut? Awesome.

Was that toucan taken at La Paz Waterfall Gardens? I love that place.
- Mark Frauenfelder
  
  It’s an iMovie trailer theme!
  
  And yes, some of the photos are from the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which was a highlight of our trip.
Dane

Whatever that animal is in the 5th picture, it’s an odd odd creature…
- jere7my
  
  Whatever that animal is in the 5th picture, it’s an odd odd creature…
  
  That’s a coatimundi. They’re also known as crackoons and snookum bears, per Wikipedia, which was news to me.
  - Anonymous
    
    Are you sure? Looks like a standard issue racoon to me!
  - Anonymous
    
    Actually, it seems to be a Crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus).
    - jere7my
      
      Actually, it seems to be a Crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus).
      
      Oops! You’re quite right. But I’m pretty confident that I can tell Tomas what #3 is: a stink bug, possibly Loxa flavicollis: http://bugguide.net/node/view/472026/bgimage
Anonymous

Ah, the Palmleafii Arealiensis! We will have to think up an ecological niche for him.
Anonymous

You all have much to learn, grasshopper… ;)
TimmoWarner

Wow. I completely missed the grasshopper after three scroll throughs looking for the fake.

That yawn looked so much like a good “stuffed animal” pose.
Anonymous

Grasshopper is ‘folded’ from palm leaves.
Pretty neat.
Anonymous

The “grasshopper” is the fake!!
Anonymous

I think the bug with long legs is fake.
Mr. Necktie

I was just in Costa Rica and these are all standard fare! There’s also black fire ants, red leaf cutter ants (totally cool how they demolish a hillside!), and cicadas the size of your fist. Howler monkeys are the most popular animals, and I’m surprised to see that their national animal, a blue butterfly whose name escapes me at the moment, and the sloth (of which Costa Rica has the most per square mile in the world) aren’t mentioned here. Still a great collection though — makes me miss it that much more. Pura Vida!
mtdna

It’s not a jaguar – it’s an ocelot! And it’s yawning.

Sheesh.
- Boomer
  
  Oh yeah? Really? How can you tell it isn’t screaming in frustration because he or she can’t find a mate to scratch a bad itch?
- mkultra
  
  Q. How do you titillate an ocelot?
  A. Oscillate its tit a lot.
IlluminatedOne

And still, no one has pointed out the fact that embiggen is a perfectly cromulent word!
grikdog

The grass origami Katydidn’t is unreal.
Tomas

Shame you didn’t identify the creatures: I’m curious what the alien green creature in the third image is…
Counterglow

I may be off base here, but I’m betting the fake is what looks to me like a raccoon-headed coatimundi.
Anonymous

Nice pictures and very cool trailer. I was just in Manuel Antonio this past March on my honeymoon. It’s a beautiful place. I still need to get around to editing all my pics and vids.

Where did you stay in Manuel Antonio, Mark?
Ghede

Toucan is fake. Eyes look to be a solid color, don’t they have colored irises? It’s also just the sort of animal I would make a fake version for tourists to gawp at.
That’s my guess anyways.
Ghede

Wait. Fff, just noticed the “grass” hopper. -_- Missed that one scrolling.
Anonymous

that is the cleanest sloth I’ve ever seen! when I was in Costa RIca the sloths were so matted they looked like dred locks! You didn’t get a blue jean frog!
Jack Daniel

I know those monkeys! One of them tried to steal the sunglasses off my girlfriend’s head while hiking through Manuel Antonio National Park.

To anybody looking to go I recommend the Hotel Mariposa. In my opinion the perfect balance of rustic and luxurious, and gorgeous views. Ask for one of their older cabins.

Probably the best active vacation I’ve ever had. Zip-lining, rafting, ATV’s, horseback riding, surfing, fishing, etc. It was like summer camp for adults.
- Bassguitar115
  
  Hotel Mariposa is very nice. We stayed at the Gaia Hotel & Reserve in a more upscale suite, but that was mostly because it was our honeymoon. We went to the Hotel Mariposa for lunch one day and the scenery is gorgeous. We are thinking of going back sometime and will probably stay at the Mariposa. Good recommendation.
Unmutual

I think the first one is fake. Some kind of iguanid head shopped onto a Tegu body.
Unmutual

Nevermind that last post. The green bug guy is just a bunch of leaves and twigs rolled up together. I was so busy trying to spot the PS job that I missed the obvious!