Costa Rican Hotels Blog | Your Gateway to a Costa Rican Experience

The growing civilization as well as hotels and restaurants in the Quepos region may endanger the Manuel Antonio Squirrel Monkey population if the necessary precautions are not taken soon.

This monkey species found in the Manuel Antonio National Park is a unique Squirrel Monkey subspecies found only in the Costa Rican Central Pacific.  Several specialists have stated that this species could disappear due to several factors caused by the invasion of the humans to the monkey’s territories.

The main reason for the endangerment of these monkeys is that the species located in the Manuel Antonio National Park have been left isolated from similar squirrel monkey species found in the Costa Rican South Pacific Coast.  Deforestation, plantations and constructions have eliminated national corridors which allowed species to communicate and reproduce.

In addition, the isolation of the squirrel monkey in the Manuel Antonio National Park will force these monkeys to reproduce among themselves thus leaving no room for genetic variety.  By reproducing among themselves, they will become genetically weaker thus more vulnerable to sickness.

Although specialists do not have an exact number of squirrel monkeys in Manuel Antonio, it is believed that there are approximately 1,000 in all.  Among other problems that park rangers and scientists have determined to endanger the species is the amount of high tension electricity cables that pass near the park.   Although ecological bridges have been placed, the numbers of monkeys that die of electrocution are considerable.

Certain hotels and tour operators are also to blame for the species’ dependency on human beings.  Some of these tour businesses offer what they call “happy hours” in which monkeys are served large platters of fruits in order to attract tourists.  These actions make the monkeys depend on humans as well as change the species natural diet and behavior.

Several biologist from the University of Costa Rica have been working on guidelines and education programs in order to help prevent the extinction of the Manuel Antonio Squirrel Monkey.