8 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 75 



vores, 6 edentates, 5 marsupials, 3 primates, 3 artiodactyls, 1 rabbit, and 1 perisso- 

 dactyl. Although Braulio Carrillo is much more poorly known than La Selva, it 

 is safe to assume that those species of mammals that have been recorded at La 

 Selva are, or at least were, present in adjacent Braulio Carrillo. If we add to this 

 list the species known to occur in the national park that are not present at La Selva, 

 the fauna of Braulio Carrillo consists of at least 142 species, including 79 bats, 

 23 rodents, 15 carnivores, 7 marsupials, 6 edentates, 4 artiodactyls, 3 primates, 

 2 rabbits, 2 shrews, and 1 perissodactyl. This is undoubtedly a conservative estimate 

 because we strongly suspect that additional field work will add to this list (see Species 

 of Possible or Probable Occurrence in the Area). The greater species richness of 

 bats than of all other species combined is not unusual for Neotropical faunas (Findley 

 and Wilson 1983). There are 5 to 10 additional species of bats, a marsupial, and 

 a few rodents that eventually may be found to occur at La Selva. Overhunting before 

 protection of the area likely resulted in the extirpation of giant anteaters and white- 

 lipped peccaries from La Selva. Tapirs, collared peccaries, pacas, agoutis, monkeys, 

 and squirrels probably were reduced in numbers due to hunting pressure before 

 the 1953 purchase of Finca La Selva by L. R. Holdridge. Numbers of these species, 

 along with those of carnivores and rabbits, appear to be increasing in recent years, 

 as protection of wildlife has been a high priority for the current owners, the 

 Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) . Several species of bats and some of the 

 marsupials may have benefited from human activities in the area. Today, the La 

 Selva reserve-Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo complex, with its elevational ex- 

 tension from near sea level to the top of Volcan Barva at more than 2,900 m, 

 probably contains the best representation of a tropical mammalian fauna found 

 anywhere in Central America (Timm, in press; Wilson, in press). 



Most regions of Central America were visited early by educated European 

 explorer-naturalists. These early scientists and dedicated amateurs played a 

 vital, but now often overlooked, historical role in obtaining specimens from 

 remote areas, depositing them in museums where they could be studied by scien- 

 tists, and in recording observations on natural history and the abundance of 

 organisms before habitat disturbance by expanding human populations. An out- 

 standing example of these naturalists in Central America was the British mining 

 engineer T. Belt, who recorded in great detail his 4 years spent in the Santo 

 Domingo area of central Nicaragua (Belt 1874). He accurately described much 

 of the animal and plant life of the region in addition to the geology. On the South 

 American continent such explorers included Charles Darwin and Alexander von 

 Humboldt. 



The first formal collection of mammals from Costa Rica was made by W. M. 

 Gabb during his study of the geography, geology, and paleontology of the lower 

 Talamanca Mountains in 1874 and was sent to the U.S. National Museum of Natural 

 History in Washington, DC. Gabb was employed by M. C. Keith, the builder of 

 the Limon-San Jose railway, to survey the Talamanca region of Costa Rica for 

 mineral deposits and for possible railway construction routes. Although he was 

 unsuccessful in locating sufficient mineral deposits and a feasible railway construe- 



