Search results

my internet research indicates that the great horned eagle owl may not be present in Costa Rica.... however a week ago i saw a large owl sitting on a tree in broad daylight and it appears to be a spectacled owl/ oropopo (Pulsatrix perspicllata)

i owned only one car in my life: the incredible ford festiva i drove for 2years around Australia (incl. Wolf Creek Crater), i left it with friends who occasionally still use it. in Japan (=i had a japanese driver's license) i drove a 30y.o. mini truck belonging to a friend (first owner was a...

my goal for this year (actually several years but somehow always something came in-between...) was to climb a mountain. a week ago (after plenty of hassle during preparation) i finally took off -- sadly i didn't reach my goal: #1 what the map marked as a dirt road part of the way turned out to...

i've only six machetes so i figured i needed another one :P (i hasten to add i bought only one seven years ago, the rest are found or passed on aanndd machetes are common and cheap every-day items here in central america...) the one i got today is a 12" version from "corneta" for an upcoming...

i didn't learn about them until after leaving europe.... either the same species or a close relative exists here in tropical central america, too -- i've found it on various trees incl. a dead lemon tree...

today i spooked a kinkajou (Potos flavus) bush bashing my way down a steep overgrown hill side. they may look cute, but our neighbor hates them for a good reason: they're rather destructive in coconut palms, causing their death when knocking out the new leaf...

this morning i had an Eira barbara walking around my building (=a large member of the weasel family, locally known as "tolomuco" or (incorrectly) "gato del monte"(=mountain cat) -- they look like an oversized skunk and are fond of chicken...

a few days ago i added a sloth skull to my collection as well (before anyone wonders why i collect skulls: they're meant as exhibition objects for visitors)

last year i had to do a first aid course (done by a really great paramedic) which involved applying a tourniquet. we were told that it's important to note exactly when it's put on but no mentioning was made in regards to the Op's question... . in a recent video on YouTube there was a mentioning...

somehow i'm not surprised to read this... shame their natural habitat is disappearing (due to logging and palm oil plantations :cry: ), "orang utan" translates as forest dweller" in english which also happens to be the translation for my name...

(as usual sadly no pics...) my collection currently includes a skull of: raccoon, coati, sloth, monkey and crocodile (found an entire 4ft carcass on the beach recently) and an indigenous stone axe and stone adze head each (=found along the river, our area is rich in old burial grounds and...

two evenings ago i had a pair of red eyes approaching my shelter at night: they belonged to a large Opossum("zorro pelon", meaning "bald fox" in local spanish BUT they're NOT foxes!) , America's only marsupial. some folks claim their meat to be tasty but you've to get past the rather strong...

are you planning to stay in it during winter, too?! not entirely related, but i spent one winter in Japan in a tiny cabin which was built by others as a project to provide housing for homeless people. it had neither insulation (i added some) nor heating, which made living a bit interesting...

thanks for the info reg. owl species! sadly the tropical environment (=humidity) has killed my beloved "Fuji finepix 5600" camera (and gets it's waterproof smaller sibling as well...), so my only camera is now my phone which is mostly turned off. and i still haven't figured out how to post pics...

last night i had a small owl (ca. size of a large pigeon) sitting chest high on a branch in front of me when looking for foam frogs (up to 7" long and rather tasty but tricky to get close enough) -- no idea about species sometimes you can see large owls in the trees, especially around full moon...

yesterday evening i bumped into an agouti (= a rodent about the size of a hare, guatussa in local spanish): brazil nut trees rely on them for propagation as they're the only animal capable of gnawing through their rock-hard outer shell, no brazil nuts here but a relative called "olla de mono"...

sorry to hear that and speedy recovery!

google tells me cat gut is made from animal intestines, mainly from goat and sheep. i found several references of cat gut in books -- if anyone has a copy of "for the term of his natural life" by Marcus Clarke: Rufus Dawes uses goat intestines to make string for traps and to construct a coracle...

not in Costa Rica although the indigenous people have moved on to firearms... sorry for some infos not exactly related to the thread, but it was meant for entertainment only -- playing with arrow poisons can easily go wrong! to get back to the subject of the thread: last two days i saw a big...

some european some european plants are suitable for making arrow poison, too Antiaris Toxicaria is the tree used in Borneo to poison blowpipe darts -- not sure how strong it is, but the Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates Terribliis)from Colombia is strong enough to kill 30 people and iirc you...