Golfito Wildlife REfuge

Size: 1,309 hectares
Distance from San José: 342 kilometers
Dry season: January through March

The Golfito Refuge is a wilderness area of rugged terrain that receives a large amount of rainfall. The forest is dense, tall and evergreen. The emergent layer consists of huge specimens of yellow saman; silk cotton, the fruits of which produce kapok, a cotton-like substance that covers the seeds and is used for stuffing; copal, which gives off a pleasant and distinctive aromatic fragance; butternut, which exudes a characteristic sticky, yellow latex on its trunk and leaves; purple heart, which produces a beautiful purple hard wood that is perfect for making furniture and woodcrafts; manwood, which has a thick, heavy wood that can last for over 30 years on the ground without decomposing; plomo, which has awesome, thick buttresses that climb up over 6 meters high; espave, which can be frequently seen growing at the edge of the river canyons; bully tree, a tree that is easily seen from a distance because of the brilliant red leaves scattered over its canopy; and cow tree, which produces a white latex that can be drunk like milk.

A botanical rarity found in the refuge is the quira tree of the Lauraceae family. This is an Asiatic genus that has been discovered only once before in the Amazon region of Perú.
Based on the preliminary research carried out to date in the refuge, 125 species of trees and shrubs have been identified.

The refuge is essential for the conservation of the water supply for the near-by city of Golfito. Biologically, it is not very well known in general.

Trees found here: manwood, butternut, plomo, purpleheart, black palm, espave, bully tree, cow tree, huriki, guava

Animals found here: collared peccary, paca, agouti, common racoon, white-nosed coati, hispid cotton rat, pocket gopher.