Featured Eco Columnist Elizabeth Mann Sustainable living is a lifestyle with the goal to reduce the usage of natural resources through a change in transportation, energy use, and food consumption. At this small farm in Costa Rica, sustainability starts in the home where free wind energy is used to dry clothes. Another plus is the [...]
Featured Eco Columnist Elizabeth Mann Tapanti National Park in Costa Rica is located on the edge of the Talamanca Range, near Cartago. The park contains 45 species of mammals and 260 kinds of birds including the spectacular Quetzal! The park is also home to 28 species of reptiles. The area in which the park is [...]
Featured Eco Columnist Elizabeth Mann The Turrialba Volcano was named after the region in which it is located in the Turrialba county, Cartago. The volcano is the second highest in Costa Rica with an altitude of 11,000 feet. It was originally named “Torre Alba” which translates to White Tower. This name came from the Spaniards [...]
Featured Eco Columnist Elizabeth Mann Manuel Antonio National Park is located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, just south of Quepos. The 682 hectare park is the smallest of any Costa Rican national park. Its beautiful white sand beaches and trails through the tropical rainforest forest, make it one of Costa Rica’s most popular [...]
Featured Eco Columnist Elizabeth Mann For a year one of my dreams had been to see and film the Blue Morpho butterfly in its natural habitat. On January 13, 2010, I finally had my chance to search for one of the rarest Blue Morpho species, Morpho amathonte, in the jungles of Costa Rica. For five [...]
by Elizabeth Mann – Eco Writer for TCRN The first six days of my Costa Rica tour, I stayed with an eco community living up in the jungles. The community is called VerdEnergia and they are working towards replanting a green future. They do not use air conditioning instead they have an open air house. [...]
by Elizabeth Mann In Costa Rica rainforests, butterflies with defects soon become part of the food chain. When raising caterpillars and butterflies inside an enclosed area, injuries and disease can be observed first hand. Some of the problems a caterpillar may encounter are bacterial diseases, defects during development, or falling before the butterflies wings are [...]
By Elizabeth Mann The Cloudless Sulphur butterfly can be found from southern United States, through Central America, Costa Rica, to the northern part of Argentina. To survive, the Cloudless Sulpur butterfly has the shape similar to that of a leaves. This camouflage is so detailed that even the veins on the butterfly’s wings duplicates that [...]
By Elizabeth Mann This beautiful butterfly is one of the largest skippers. Skippers are smaller than common butterflies and usually feed on grass. Skippers were given this name because of their appearance to skip as they fly. Long-tailed Skippers can be found in the jungles of Costa Rica drinking from the brightly colored flowers. They [...]
By Elizabeth Mann *Photos Copyright Elizabeth Mann 2009 This is a Hover fly I discovered resting on my Passion vine plant. Hover Flies are common throughout the world and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. In America they are also called Flower Flies. This name fits them well because they are often found [...]
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