# Species Conservation in Costa Rica: Saving Macaws, Sloths and Peccaries

> Species conservation in Costa Rica means helping whole wild populations survive on their own, not just saving individual animals. Groups like Osa Conservation, the Macaw Recovery Network and the Sloth Conservation Foundation protect habitat, return missing species, cut threats like power lines and trafficking, and track results for years. Visitors help most by choosing public programs and never seeking out nests or release sites.

Source: https://pura-verde.com/species-conservation-costa-rica/
Last checked: 2026-10-30
Best for: Travelers who want to understand and support wildlife recovery, not just see animals.
Where: Osa Peninsula and Golfo Dulce (peccaries), Punta Islita and Sarapiquí (macaws), South Caribbean (sloths), Nosara (power-line safety).
Good to know: Release sites, nests and tracking areas are kept private on purpose and aren't visitor stops.
Can you visit: The Macaw Recovery Network offers tours at its Punta Islita reserve, and International Animal Rescue Costa Rica offers educational visits in Nosara; book ahead.
Red flag: Any offer to hold chicks, enter breeding aviaries or visit a nest.
Ask before you go: Is there habitat to return to, and does the project publish what happened after release?

*Thirteen white-lipped peccaries aren't the usual boat passengers. In 2026 a conservation team crated a small herd on the Osa Peninsula, drove it to Puerto Jiménez and carried it across the Golfo Dulce to a park that hadn't recorded the species in 18 years. That's what species recovery looks like in Costa Rica: not one heroic photo, but vets, biologists, rangers, boat crews and neighbors making a hard decision work.*

Seeing a scarlet macaw over the beach or a sloth curled in a cecropia tree can make a trip. Keeping those sightings possible is far harder. It can mean tracking animals for years, replanting trees that take decades to mature, or getting a power company to insulate a line before the next monkey touches it.

Species conservation starts with one demanding question: what would let a wild population survive without constant human help? That's different from rescuing one injured animal, which our guide to [wildlife rescue centers](/wildlife-rescue-centers-costa-rica/) covers, and it's much more than breeding animals in captivity.

## The white-lipped peccaries returning to Piedras Blancas

White-lipped peccaries, known locally as *chancho de monte* or *cariblanco*, travel in herds, dig wallows that other animals use and are prey for jaguars and pumas. [Osa Conservation's July 2026 announcement](https://osaconservation.org/2026/07/10/un-regreso-historico-el-chancho-de-monte-vuelve-al-pn-piedras-blancas/) says they'd gone 18 years without recorded sightings in Piedras Blancas National Park, and that the species disperses seeds of 57 plant types. Losing them left a hole in the forest's food web.

The project didn't start with a boat. Osa Conservation says work began in 2023 with the Osa Conservation Area of SINAC, Costa Rica's national conservation agency, and included surveys of 335 people in 13 nearby communities, training and a community monitoring group in La Gamba. The organization's rewilding manager, [Guido Saborío](https://osaconservation.org/about-us/meet-the-team/), coordinated the operation.

[Mongabay's August 2026 account](https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/13-peccaries-sail-home-to-heal-a-costa-rican-forest/) fills in the details. After camera-trap surveys in 2024 and about a year and a half of baiting a corral near Piro, at the southern tip of the peninsula, the team captured 3 males and 10 females. Wildlife veterinarian Dennise Ortiz Angulo helped examine and crate them. Rangers escorted the convoy, a local lodge supplied the boat, and the crates were hand-carried about 2 kilometers to a soft-release corral, where the herd could settle before heading into the forest. Two animals were later fitted with tracking collars. Osa Conservation's executive director, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, a former environment minister, called it "giving medicine to the forest of Piedras Blancas."

Moving animals doesn't create a self-sustaining population overnight. Survival, breeding, disease and especially hunting have to be watched for years. The Osa team page lists the people who do that slow work, including lead field biologist Paulina Rodríguez and rewilding field biologists Allan Brenes and Kenneth Barrantes. Hunting pressure is real here: our story on [peccary killings in Osa](/news/osa-peccary-hunting-investigation/) shows why community buy-in matters as much as the release.

## Macaws, women rangers and an economy built around birds

The scarlet macaw is an icon of the Pacific coast. The great green macaw depends on lowland forest in the north and Caribbean side, where its numbers have fallen fast. Both need nest trees, food trees and safe landscapes to move through.

The [Macaw Recovery Network](https://macawrecoverynetwork.org/) breeds and releases macaws and protects wild nests. Its [recovery program page](https://macawrecoverynetwork.org/the-network/recovery-program/) lists the great green macaw, the scarlet macaw and the yellow-naped parrot, an annual great green macaw census across the species' range, and the Sarapiquí Rainforest Reserve: 208 hectares in a great green macaw breeding area, established in 2023, with about a fifth of it former cattle land now being restored. Its breeding center is at the Punta Islita Wild Macaw Reserve on the Nicoya Peninsula, which offers visitor tours, and it runs a native tree nursery in Boca Tapada.

The [team page](https://macawrecoverynetwork.org/the-network/meet-the-team/) introduces executive director Dr. Sam Williams, a parrot field researcher who came to Costa Rica in 2015 to lead The Ara Project, and co-founder Sarah de Groot. Costa Rican consultant Luis Quirós joined in 2026 to support *Art for the Macaws*, which helps women artisans in Sarapiquí, Boca Tapada and Punta Islita develop products and reach shops and hotels.

The network's [Women Rangers](https://macawrecoverynetwork.org/meet-the-rangers/) began after a pilot program around 2021. Local women in the rural north plant trees, run nursery work, help monitor great green macaw nests and teach local children. It's a simple idea with a big point: a reintroduced bird only has a future if there's forest to return to and nearby people see a living in protecting it.

A breeding center alone doesn't prove a population has recovered. Look for nest protection, habitat, monitoring after release and honest reporting. Nesting season also brings trafficking risk, as our story on [macaw nesting and trafficking in Osa](/news/osa-macaw-nesting-trafficking/) explains, which is exactly why nest locations stay private.

## Rebecca Cliffe and the sloths that shouldn't need a hospital

[Dr. Rebecca Cliffe](https://www.slothconservation.org/meet-the-founder) first came to Costa Rica at 18 on a research placement and spent six years tracking wild sloths for her PhD. She founded the [Sloth Conservation Foundation](https://www.slothconservation.org/) (SloCo) in 2017 to tackle what sends sloths to rescue centers in the first place: roads, power lines, dogs and broken-up forest.

SloCo's [team page](https://slothconservation.com/about-sloco/our-team/) shows how local that work is. Research manager José Pablo Guzmán García, Connected Gardens coordinator Mariano Salceda, tree climber and drone pilot Dayber Barker León and forest nursery manager Juan Diego Elizondo García link research, trees, home gardens and canopy crossings.

Cliffe's [July 2026 field update](https://slothconservation.org/blog/tales-from-the-jungle-july-2026) is a good antidote to polished fundraising videos. It rained every day for three weeks on the Caribbean coast, roads washed out, and several tracking collars failed early, leaving the team searching by hand and with a thermal drone. That's conservation: weather, broken gear and patience.

A well-placed canopy bridge can help sloths cross a gap. A badly placed one may do little. Monitoring is what tells the difference.

## Monkeys, power lines and forest islands

Costa Rica's howler, white-faced capuchin, spider and squirrel monkeys don't all face the same threats. Some cope with disturbed land; others need mature, connected forest. Every population needs food, mates and a way to move between patches. A clump of trees beside a hotel can be a resting spot without being a future.

In Nosara, the rescue center long known as Refuge for Wildlife now runs as [International Animal Rescue Costa Rica](https://www.iarcostarica.org/). Alongside rescue, its *Stop the Shocks* program targets electrocutions on power lines, and its site counted 69 electrocutions in 2026 by late October. That's a threat national agencies are now tackling too, as our story on the [plan to reduce monkey and sloth electrocutions](/news/wildlife-electrocution-strategy/) reports.

The best question to ask a monkey project isn't how many monkeys it has photographed. Ask whether it has reduced electrocutions, dog attacks, road deaths or hunting, whether local residents helped design it, and whether anyone is following up.

## Six tests for real species recovery

1. **Habitat:** Is there protected land for feeding, nesting and moving?
2. **Numbers and genes:** Is the group big and connected enough to stay healthy?
3. **Threats:** Have hunting, electrocution, roadkill or trafficking actually dropped?
4. **Welfare:** Do vets follow species-appropriate release protocols?
5. **Monitoring:** Does the project track animals after release and report setbacks?
6. **Community:** Do local people take part and benefit?

A program can pass some tests and struggle on others. That's normal. Good conservation leaders are honest about incomplete progress, and a team that tells you how many released birds survived is worth more than a glossy picture.

## Jaguars, tapirs and the need for room to roam

Wide-ranging animals are the hardest to protect. A jaguar crosses forests, farms and roads; a tapir needs big, safe territory. Protecting only the spot where someone took a photo solves a small part of the problem. That's why individual animals tracked over years, like the jaguar in our story on [Encanto reappearing on an Osa camera trap](/news/jaguar-encanto-osa-camera-trap/), matter so much to researchers, and why the [wildlife crossings bill](/news/wildlife-crossings-law/) and corridor work get so much attention. Our guide to [nature reserves and wildlife corridors](/nature-reserves-wildlife-corridors-costa-rica/) explains how connected land keeps these populations alive.

## Where to see conservation work responsibly

- **Nicoya Peninsula:** The Macaw Recovery Network's Punta Islita reserve offers booked tours about its macaw program.
- **Sarapiquí and Boca Tapada:** Great green macaw country. Learn through the network's public outreach rather than searching for nests.
- **Osa and Golfo Dulce:** [Osa Conservation](https://osaconservation.org/) works on rewilding and restoration. Release sites aren't attractions.
- **South Caribbean:** Follow SloCo's work and choose places to stay that keep trees and canopy links, instead of hunting for wild sloths.
- **Nosara:** IAR Costa Rica offers educational visits that connect rescue stories to power-line safety.

Our map shows public reserves under [reserves](/#reserve) and licensed centers under [rescue](/#rescue). We only pin public entrances and program meeting points, never nests, camera traps or release forests.

## How you can help, at home and on the road

Pick tours that keep their distance from wildlife; our [responsible ecotourism guide](/responsible-ecotourism-tours-costa-rica/) explains how. Never buy or share wildlife offered online, a growing problem covered in our story on [wildlife trafficking moving to social media](/news/wildlife-trafficking-social-media/). Slow down where animals cross, keep dogs under control and don't feed monkeys. If you want to give time, our [ethical volunteering guide](/ethical-volunteering-costa-rica/) explains what useful help looks like, and our guide to [biological research stations](/biological-research-stations-costa-rica/) shows where the monitoring data comes from.

A donation is most useful when you ask what it buys: a ranger's paid hours, a tracking collar, nursery seedlings or land. Good groups can answer.

The next time a macaw flies over a beach, ask where it nested, which trees feed it and who protected them. That's a better story than the color of its feathers.

## Frequently asked questions

### What endangered animals is Costa Rica trying to save?

Well-known efforts focus on the great green and scarlet macaws, white-lipped peccaries, sloths, monkeys, jaguars, tapirs and sea turtles. Most projects protect habitat and cut threats like hunting, trafficking and power lines.

### Can you visit a macaw conservation project in Costa Rica?

Yes. The Macaw Recovery Network offers booked tours at its Punta Islita Wild Macaw Reserve. Nests and release sites aren't open to visitors.

### What's the difference between wildlife rescue and species conservation?

Rescue helps individual animals that are injured or orphaned. Species conservation works on whole populations: habitat, threats, genetics and long-term monitoring so animals survive on their own.

### Were peccaries reintroduced in Costa Rica?

Yes. In 2026 Osa Conservation and SINAC moved 13 white-lipped peccaries from the Osa Peninsula to Piedras Blancas National Park, where the species hadn't been recorded in 18 years.

### How can tourists help wildlife in Costa Rica?

Don't touch or feed wild animals, avoid places offering animal contact, report wildlife for sale, drive slowly and support groups that publish results.

### Why are monkeys and sloths electrocuted in Costa Rica?

They use power lines to cross gaps in the canopy. Groups like IAR Costa Rica push for insulated lines and canopy bridges, and the government has a strategy to reduce these deaths.