Tag archives for Costa Rica
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Has your family ever dreamed of exploring Costa Rica? Pottery Barn Kids has announced a sweepstakes for families. Only adults can enter the Pottery Barn Kids Dare To Explore Costa Rica sweepstakes. One family will win an amazing eight-day trip with National Geographic Expeditions to explore the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panama aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion!
Photograph by Robert L. Curry
Did you know that there are more than 40,000 species of spiders, but only one species is known to be vegetarian? The jumping spider is named Bagheera kiplingi after the character of Bagheera the panther in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.
Bagheera kiplingi lives in Mexico and Costa Rica and eats the buds that grow on acacia plants. Ferocious acacia ants live in the acacia’s hollow thorns and defend the plants from intruders such as Bagheera kiplingi. The spider must leap from thorn to thorn to collect its food while avoiding the ants, according to Christopher Meehan the biologist who led the study. “It is utterly surreal to see a spider use such effective hunting strategies to hunt a plant,” he added.
Read more about this plant-loving spider on National Geographic News.
Put together puzzles featuring spiders on National Geographic Kids.
Watch a video of a jumping spider on National Geographic Kids.
Watch the video of frogfish swimming near Cocos Island.
Easily mistaken for a sponge when standing still, this frogfish–a favorite of the Ocean Now expedition team–waddles the seafloor beneath Chatham Bay off Costa Rica’s Cocos Island. Learn more about Cocos and see more of the frogfish at ocean.nationalgeographic.com.
Real pirates once buried their treasure on Cocos Island. Now a team of scientists, led by Enric Sala and Sylvia Earle is diving into the waters surrounding this beautiful island in Costa Rica to learn more about the fertile seamounts where hammerhead and white tip reef sharks feed during their migratory journeys.
The Ocean Now researchers will document the marine life they find during the month of September. They will be reporting about the turtles, manta rays, and sharks they find.
Follow the Cocos Island Expedition and become involved!
Photograph by Sarah Wilson
