José Manuel Mora

National University of Costa Rica | UNA · Instituto Internacional en Conservación y Manejo de Vida Silvestre (ICOMVIS)

Although there are 935 species of birds in Costa Rica, scientific reports of pigmentation abnormalities in this group are limited. Nevertheless, several cases have been recently documented, including Leucism, Ino mutation, Progressive Graying, Dilution, and two unusual color aberrations in a toucan and a motmot. Here we describe seven cases of colo...

En Costa Rica, hay 88 especies de lagartijas, incluidas especies de forrajeo activo como la chisbala centroamericana, Holcosus festivus, y cazadoras al acecho como el anolis común, Anolis humilis. Observamos un evento de depredación entre estas dos especies en la Estación Biológica La Selva, en las tierras bajas del norte de Costa Rica. Un juvenil...

El buco de collar (Notharchus hyperrhynchus) se alimenta principalmente de insectos grandes, y puede consumir pequeños vertebrados, pero esto ha sido escasamente documentado. Aquí documentamos la depredación por un buco sobre una lagartija en la selva tropical húmeda del Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica. El 05 de diciembre de 2022 a las 17:25...

El tamandúa basa su dieta principalmente en insectos eusociales. Hemos observado a esta especie interactuando con cocos en el suelo del Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica. El tamandúa introduce su hocico en los cocos y aparentemente bebe su contenido. En algunas ocasiones, lo hemos observado sosteniendo el coco con sus garras para abrirlo por un...

Although Costa Rica occupies a mere 0.03% of the Earth’s land area, it nevertheless has recorded within its borders approximately 5% of the global diversity of mammals, thus making it one of the world’s megadiverse countries. Over the past ten years, 22 species have been added to the country’s inventory, bringing the total number known as here docu...

La información sobre el uso del hábitat de varios hílidos, como Agalychnis annae, es limitada. Esta especie se reproduce en estanques y requiere la presencia de plantas cerca de pequeños cuerpos de agua para una reproducción exitosa. El objetivo de esta investigación fue examinar los aspectos básicos del uso del hábitat por parte de Agalychnis anna...

La danta centroamericana (Tapirus bairdii) prefiere hábitats con cuerpos de agua en las inmediaciones. El 3 de diciembre de 2021 registramos una hembra de tapir y su cría cruzando el río Sirena, Parque Nacional Corcovado, suroeste de Costa Rica. La cría siguió a su madre cuando entró al río, sin embargo, en la parte más profunda del río la madre se...

La diversidad de lagartijas en el Neotrópico es notablemente alta, participan en varias interacciones ecológicas y son componentes relevantes de la red alimentaria en muchos de los ambientes donde habitan. Sphaerodactylidae es una familia muy diversa de pequeños gecos diurnos, con seis especies en Costa Rica, incluido el geco de cabeza amarilla Gon...

Introducción: Actualmente, la biodiversidad está administrada principalmente por áreas protegidas, pero la proximidad con las actividades humanas genera conflictos, los cuales están poco estudiados en los trópicos. Objetivo: Estimar el conflicto entre humanos y vida silvestre en la zona de amortiguamiento de la Reserva Biológica Alberto Manuel Bren...

El garrobo (Ctenosaura similis) se encuentra principalmente en ambientes xéricos en la vertiente del Pacífico de Mesoamérica. La especie ha sido considerada omnívora, con un cambio ontogenético en su dieta; los juveniles son insectívoros y los adultos son principalmente herbívoros. El garrobo consume diferentes tipos de materia vegetal y animal, si...

To ascertain the taxonomic identity of cottontail rabbits from Costa Rica, we examined the holotypes of all the taxa of Sylvilagus currently subsumed within the Sylvilagus floridanus species complex as defined by Philip Hershkovitz. The almost 40 named taxa contained in S. floridanus are widespread from northeastern to north-central North America i...

Gray-bellied Hawk, Accipiter poliogaster (Temmink, 1824), is a rare forest dwelling raptor in South America. This hawk migrates from Paraguay and northern Argentina (Misiones) in the south to the equator for the winter. In Costa Rica this species has occasionally been recorded from a few localities. We present here a new record from a disturbed are...

Despite its small size (51.000 km 2), there is approximately 5% of the world's known mammal species (over 260)

RESUMEN. Introducción: Las áreas protegidas privadas son un complemento valioso para los sistemas nacionales de áreas protegidas. La Reserva Sierra Zapote en Abangares, Costa Rica, establecida en 2000, protege 70 ha de bosque secundario avanzado, bosque secundario en regeneración y bosque ribereño primario. Se espera que favorezca a las comunidades...

Las anomalías pigmentarias son causadas por deficiencia o exceso de melanina, lo que resulta en alteraciones cromáticas de la piel y el pelaje o las plumas. La anomalía que consiste en manchas blancas se ha definido en murciélagos como leucismo o piebaldismo. Presentamos el primer registro de piebaldismo en Eumops auripendulus en Costa Rica. Mientr...

Las arañas de Trechaleidae pueden estar entre los depredadores más frecuentes de anuros pequeños en los bosques neotropicales. En esta familia, se sabe que Cupiennius coccineus, una de las especies más grandes del género, es depredadora de ranas. Tres de 15 eventos de depredación de ranas por arañas en Costa Rica fueron causados por esta especie qu...

The Scorpion Mud turtle, Kinosternon scorpioides, is a widely distributed, semiaquatic species known to engage in regular terrestrial movement and terrestrial estivation. We studied terrestrial behavior in this species in Palo Verde National Park, northwestern Costa Rica. We determined terrestrial activity patterns by searching for active individua...

Introducción: El tamaño de las áreas protegidas a menudo es insuficiente para mantener poblaciones viables de depredadores, lo que provoca una superposición de hábitats con los humanos. Los conflictos resultantes, por ejemplo, la depredación de animales domésticos, afectan negativamente tanto a la vida silvestre como al bienestar humano. Objetivo:...

The rutting season of the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is seasonal in North America, but in tropical latitudes it occurs year-round with peaks locally variable. Reproductive cycle of this species in Costa Rica is variable, clearly seasonal in San Lucas Island but continuous with two birth peaks in Palo Verde and Santa Rosa national pa...

Observations of predation events are rare. These events are important to help understand trophic networks of biological communities in general and of introduced species in particular. Milk frogs (Trachycephalus typhonius) feed on insects and other arthropods, but some cases of vertebrates have been reported in its diet: a Sheep toad (Hypopachus var...

Trachycephalus typhonius is a common species in several habitat types, and it has a wide distribution from Mexico to southern Brazil and northern Argentina. In Costa Rica, it inhabits the Pacific lowlands and marginally in the San Juan River basin near the border with Nicaragua. However, their records in Costa Rica are limited. Here we report the p...

Agalychnis annae is a species endemic to Costa Rica and Panama with populations shrinking or disappearing from several locations. We studied the reproduction of a relict population of A . annae in a 1,300 m ² natural pond in Costa Rica during 2007–2008. We marked adults with a visible implant alphanumeric tag injected in the thigh. We measured repr...

Land-use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss. Large-scale disturbances such as habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation are known to have negative consequences for native biota, but the effects of small-scale disturbances such as selective logging are less well known. We compared three sites with different regimes of selective logging...

Masticophis mentovarius (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) occurs at low and moderate elevations in Lowland Dry Forest and Premontane Moist Forest. This species is known in Costa Rica mainly from the dry lowlands of the northwest. Here we report the presence of M. mentovarius at the Tropical Cloud Forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, at 1275 m a.s.l. T...

The northern naked-tailed armadillo, Cabassous centralis , is a rare and elusive species. It ranges from southern Mexico to northern South America. It has been detected in several types of habitats, but appears to prefer Tropical and Subtropical broadleaf forests. In Costa Rica, this species is difficult to observe and there are only eight records...

Analizamos la distribución del garrobo Ctenosaura similis en tres tipos de hábitat del Parque Nacional Santa Rosa, Costa Rica: área abierta, área boscosa y área administrativa (suburbana). Registramos 101 individuos de los que un 32.7% eran hembras, 19.8% machos y 47.5% de sexo indeterminado. Registramos 58 individuos adultos y 43 individuos juveni...

Habitat selection is the process whereby individuals preferentially use, or occupy, a non-random set of available habitats. At the same time, nest site selection is defined as the placement of eggs by females at sites differing from random sites within a delimited area. We located 59 nests of the mud turtle Kinosternon scorpioides in Palo Verde Nat...

Scotinomys xerampelinus has a restricted distribution in the Cordilleras Central and Talamanca of Costa Rica and western Panama, at an elevational range between 2100 and 3400 m. We report individuals observed at Cerro Chirripó, Costa Rica at 3820 m, which extends upwards the known elevational range by 420 m. The altitudinal range extension may indi...

Ectophylla alba almost exclusively feeds on the fruits of Ficus colubrinae therefore significantly contributing to dispersal of its seeds. The objective of this research was to quantify the fruit removal of F. colubrinae by E. alba and compare it with that of birds in a F. colubrinae tree at the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. We establish...

Muchos artrópodos, incluidos los escorpiones, son carnívoros, pero se desconocen los hábitos alimentarios de muchas especies. Se sabe que se alimentan principalmente de artrópodos e incluyen también anélidos y pequeños vertebrados. Potencialmente varias especies de escorpiones son depredadores de mamíferos, pero no hay ningún informe de consumo de...

The lesser long-nosed bat ( Leptonycteris yerbabuenae Martínez & Villa-R, 1940) is a specialized nectar feeding species found from southern USA to Nicaragua in Central America, mostly in dry forest. We sampled bats using mist nets and Anabat detectors, and also looked for them at refuges and other sites in Honduras from 2011 to 2016. The lesser lon...

El basilisco verde (Basiliscus plumifrons) es una lagartija centroamericana de moderado tamaño que habita desde Honduras hasta Panamá. La especie es sobre todo arborícola, aunque también se le observa perchando en troncos, rocas y arbustos. Esta lagartija se alimenta de invertebrados y vertebrados, y también consume flores y frutas. El 23 de junio...

Dice’s cottontail, Sylvilagus dicei, only was recognized as a valid species in 1981 after having been subsumed in synonymy with S. brasiliensis and S. gabbi, which latter also at times had been synonymized with an ill-defined and broadly distributed S. brasiliensis. Phylogenetic relationships of S. dicei remain poorly resolved, as does the distribu...

Plumage color aberrations are common in birds, but often it is difficult or even impossible to identify them properly in the field. Several of these aberrations are common, especially progressive greying, leucism and ino, although there is confusion among the different mechanisms. Other aberrations are rare or infrequently reported. Dilution, for e...

Las aberraciones del color del plumaje de las aves son comunes, aunque muchas veces son difíciles e incluso imposible de identificar correctamente. La anormalidad pigmentaria de mayor incidencia en las aves es el encanecimiento progresivo, que a veces es confundido con leucismo o albinismo. Aquí reportamos el primer caso de encanecimiento progresiv...

INTRODUCCIÓN El jaguar (Panthera onca) ha ocupado un lugar preponderante en la cultura y la naturaleza de Honduras. Los mayas le rindieron homenaje que se puede apreciar en piedra tallada, jeroglíficos y dibujos, en Copán durante su periodo (siglos V-IX), que es uno de los sitios más importantes de esta cultura en Mesoamérica (Marineros y Véliz, 20...

A taxonomic framework for South American cottontail rabbits (Lagomorpha: Leporidae: Sylvilagus) was recently published by Diersing and Wilson (2017). Although we agree with some of its taxonomic conclusions (e.g., species status for S. apollinaris and S. fulvescens), we disagree with others. We provide herein evidence supporting S. andinus as a val...

Several factors determine the distribution of areas in which jaguars feed on sea turtles. Different studies have evaluated the relationship of feeding sites with the distribution of human activity on the beach, distribution of nesting female turtles, interactions and territorial behaviors among jaguars and scavenger's presence. However, no study ha...

A taxonomic framework for South American cottontail rabbits (Lagomorpha: Leporidae: Sylvilagus) was recently published by Diersing and Wilson (2017). Although we agree with some of its taxonomic conclusions (e.g., species status for S. apollinaris and S. fulvescens), we disagree with others. We provide herein evidence supporting S. andinus as a val...

Durante enero y febrero de 2019 hicimos observaciones casuales y documentamos aves con lesiones macroscópicas, aparentemente por viruela o algún tipo de tumor en la cabeza. Los individuos eran de ocho especies (cinco migratorias y tres residentes), las observamos en tres localidades distintas de Guatemala. Las especies migratorias fueron Passerina...

During January-February 2019 we made casual observations and documented birds with macroscopic lesions suspicious of avian pox or some type of tumor on their head. The individuals were from eight species (five migratory and three resident) and were observed in three different locations of Guatemala. The migratory species were Painted Bunting (Passe...

We present information on two cases of color aberrations in two species of vultures: one individual of Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) in Mexico and one of Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) in Costa Rica. Both cases were determined to be ino, wherein birds have very pale brown eumelanin. We discuss these two cases and compare them with other cases o...

Only 2 lizard species of the 11 members of the genus Loxopholis Cope, 1869 are found in Central America, L. southi (Ruthven & Gaige, 1924) from Costa Rica to Colombia and L. rugiceps Cope, 1869 from Panama and Colombia. We report new country records for L. rugiceps from Honduras and Costa Rica. We collected 4 individuals of this species in Honduras...

Mesoscincus managuae (Dunn, 1933) (Squamata, Scincidae) is a typical dry-forest species found along the Pacific versant of Central America from Guatemala to northwestern Costa Rica. Here, we report the occurrence of this species on the Caribbean versant of Honduras, specifically on the Sula Plain, Deparment of Cortés. This is a subhumid habitat sim...

Se estudió la riqueza y dominancia de la vegetación producto de la regeneración natural en el bosque de coníferas de la Reserva Biológica Uyuca (Francisco Morazán, Honduras) con uno (T1), siete (T7) y más de 15 años (T15) de haber sido perturbado por incendios. Se establecieron 22 parcelas por tratamiento, 11 parcelas de 1×1 m para muestreo de herb...

In 2005, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) convened the Amphibian Conservation Summit to design a global plan of action, the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (ACAP), to address the decline of amphibian populations worldwide. The IUCN SSC Amphibian...

In 2005, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) convened the Amphibian Conservation Summit to design a global plan of action, the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (ACAP), to address the decline of amphibian populations worldwide. The IUCN SSC Amphibian...

Las anormalidades pigmentarias en aves son escasas en estado silvestre pero comunes en ambientes modificados por impacto antropogénico. Reportamos un caso de leucismo parcial en el yigüirro (Turdus grayi) en la Estación Biológica La Selva, Costa Rica. El yigüirro es un ave de amplia distribución geográfica, común en hábitats con diversos grados de...

El 29 de mayo de 2003 a las 18h45 un macho de Carollia sowelli fue capturado en el Parque Nacional Tortuguero (10°25ʼ24ˮN, 83°29ʼ48ˮW) que tenía el extremo del ala derecha de color blanco (aproximadamente la mitad del área de la membrana entre los dedos III y IV). No se pudo tomar fotografías de este individuo antes de liberarlo. El 20 de abril de...

Rojasianthe superba Standl. & Steyerm. (Asteraceae) is an endemic species, limited to a few localities in Mexico and Guatemala. Here we report a new occurrence point at a departmental scale in Guatemala; it also extends its known distribution by 40 km to the northeast. We ran species distribution models (SDM) to evaluate the potential spatial distr...

Las especies exóticas invasoras amenazan la biodiversidad en ecosistemas terrestres, de agua dulce y marinos. La mayoría de las especies invasores marinos tienden a ocupar niveles tróficos bajos, y en particular los invasores vertebrados, que ocupan niveles tróficos superiores son mucho más raros. El pez león es la primera especie exótica invasora...

The Neotropical Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) is a widely distributed aquatic bird that is usually found in shallow, clear waters. The species occupies a wide variety of habitats and has been reported from several localities in Guatemala, both in the coastal areas and the interior of the country. On 15 December 2016, we observed two cormora...

Evolution of Lagomorphs luis a. ruedas, josé m. mora, and hayley c. lanier What, if anything, is a rabbit? (Wood 1957:417) As currently understood, the order Lagomorpha has two living families: the Ochotonidae (pikas) and the Leporidae (cottontails and hares or jackrabbits). There are 29 extant species of pika in the genus Ochotona, whereas the Lep...