Santa Rosa National Park in Costa Rica
The Santa Rosa National Park is located in the province of Guanacaste, in the North Pacific of Costa Rica, just 36 Km north of the city of Liberia. It was created by Executive Order on March 20, 1972. It has an area of 37,117 hectares of ground and has 78,000 hectares in the sea. It is one of the most important historic areas of the country, the mansion of stone and pens were the scene of the largest national heroic epic: The Battle of Santa Rosa, on March 20, 1856.
The park is important for the protection and restoration of habitats of the climatic region known as the Pacific Dry. The beaches of Nancite and Naranjo are of great scenic beauty and important areas for spawning of sea turtles as Lora and the leatherback. There are about ten habitats in Santa Rosa of Costa Rica, including deciduous forests, forests of oak, evergreen forests, mangrove swamps, coastal forests, forests of little trees, beach vegetation and grassland or savannah.
Savannas in Costa Rica consist mainly of the Jaragua grass and scattered trees such as the oak, the nance, the chumico or raspaguacal, the cornizuelo, and jicara. Deciduous forests contain some 240 species of trees and shrubs: the Guanacaste that is the national tree, the Indian naked, oak savanna, the chaperno, El Jobo, the pochote, the madroño, and Guácimo.
In the evergreen forest of this part of Costa Rica the dominant species with the nispero, the oak, and the Tempisque and the Aceituno. Wildlife is abundant and diverse. It has been observed 155 species of mammals; over half are bats, 253 birds, 100 amphibians and reptiles, and more than 10,000 insects, including some 3140 species of butterflies by day and night. Among the mammals is easy to find the congo monkey, the white face monkey, the armadillo, the cheap, the tapir, the pizote, the zain, the puma, the jaguar, and raccoons. The semi thorny mouse is the most abundant mammal of all. Some of the most outstanding birds are the magpie, the parakeet orange front, the red widow, the soterrey matraquero, the cargahuesos, the Pavón, the crab hawk and Jumping tailed.