Caught in the act
The Manuel Antonio National Park is one of the smallest, but also one of the most visited parks in Costa Rica (already in 2014 when we went there). Besides offering easy access to wildlife, it also features some spectacular beaches, making it a very popular destination for many people day in, day out.
One of the consequences is that some mammals like the Panamanian white-faced capuchin monkeys that inhabit this area have become so used to human presence that they show very different behaviour than one would expect in the wild.
The capuchin monkey in this picture had just snatched a bag of chips from an unsuspecting tourist and started devouring them in the safety of a tree. For me a perfect symbolisation of the dangers of over-tourism.
The Panamanian white-faced capuchin is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae, subfamily Cebinae. Native to the forests of Central America, the white-faced capuchin is important to rainforest ecology for its role in dispersing seeds and pollen.
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