| Mata Redonda Wildlife Refuge | |
|---|---|
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area) | |
  Map of Costa Rica | |
| Location | Guanacaste, Costa Rica |
| Nearest city | Rosario, Guanacaste |
| Coordinates | 10°18′53″N85°24′54″W / 10.3146°N 85.415°W Coordinates: 10°18′53″N85°24′54″W / 10.3146°N 85.415°W [1] |
| Area | 920 acres (3.7 km2) |
| Established | 1994 |
| Governing body | National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) |
The Mata Redonda Wildlife Refuge is a Wildlife refuge of Costa Rica, part of the Tempisque Conservation Area, which protects tropical forest and wetlands near the Tempisque River and the town of Rosario, Guanacaste.
A wildlife refuge, also known as a wildlife sanctuary, is a naturally occurring sanctuary, such as an island, that provides protection for wildlife species from hunting, predation, competition or poaching; it is a protected area, a geographic territory within which wildlife is protected. Refuges can preserve animals that are endangered.
Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 5 million in a land area of 51,060 square kilometers. An estimated 333,980 people live in the capital and largest city, San José with around 2 million people in the surrounding metropolitan area.
Tempisque Conservation Area is an administrative area which is managed by SINAC for the purposes of conservation in the western part of Costa Rica, including the Tempisque River valley and the Nicoya Peninsula. It contains a number of National Parks, Wildlife refuges and Forest Reserves.
It consists of seasonal palustrine wetland and contains habitats suitable for over 60 species of resident and migratory water birds, including black-bellied whistling ducks and jabiru.
In biology, a species ( ) is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. While these definitions may seem adequate, when looked at more closely they represent problematic species concepts. For example, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, and in a ring species. Also, among organisms that reproduce only asexually, the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies.
Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by humans, and is driven primarily by availability of food. It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funneled on to specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea.
The black-bellied whistling duck, formerly also called the black-bellied tree duck, is a whistling duck that breeds from the southernmost United States and tropical Central to south-central South America. In the USA, it can be found year-round in parts of southeast Texas, and seasonally in southeast Arizona, and Louisiana's Gulf Coast. It is a rare breeder in such disparate locations as Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina, though it is now a common breeder in parts of central Florida. There is a large population of several hundred that winter each year in Audubon Park in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. Since it is one of only two whistling-duck species native to North America, it is occasionally just known as the "whistling duck" or "Mexican squealer" in the southern USA.
