Costa Rica National Parks / North Pacific / Palo Verde National Park

Palo Verde National Park protects part of the Tempisque lowlands, including fresh and saltwater marshes, deciduous, riparian, and evergreen forests, and mangrove swamps. The marshes are important habitats to migrating waterfowl and wading birds. The most conspicuous species and the one from which the park takes its name is the "palo verde" or horse bean, a leafy bush with its branches and parts of its trunk colored light green.. Some of the most abundant mammals are the howler and white-faced monkeys, white-nosed coati, white-tailed deer, tree squirrel and porcupine. Large Crocodiles have been sighted in the Tempisque River.