Agents from the Ministry of the Environment (MINAE in Spanish) and the Office of Judicial Investigation (OIJ) are currently in the Palo Verde National Park in Guanacaste, investigating several deer carcasses found tied to trees in the area. The dead deer were found by park rangers and conservation volunteers cleaning up the network of trails through the park, which is located between the Bebedero and Tempisque rivers.

This is one of the latest cases of crimes against wildlife in Costa Rica.

In an interview with news station Radio Reloj 94.3 FM, park administrator Ulises Chavarria explained that the problem has been on the increase over the last few months, and it is difficult to control by the few park rangers assigned to patrol the vast protected area. Mr. Chavarria has called on volunteers and visitors to the park to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity at once.

In an interview with Radio Reloj, Mr. Chavarria explained that:

“The problem here is that hunting is no longer done by families for subsistence. It is purely done as a commercial enterprise now; the poachers are after deer meat that is requested by butcher shops and consumer in the area. This causes competition among poachers who don’t see hunting as a necessity, but purely as a business.”

The white-tailed deer is one of Costa Rica’s national symbols. Former President Jose Figueres Olsen declared Odocoileus virginianus an emblematic species of our country’s wildlife in 1995. While the deer’s conservation status is of least concern at this time, deer in Costa Rica have been displaced by urban development in Guanacaste. As a result, national parks like Palo Verde and Santa Rosa have become their refuge. Poachers are very aware of this migration, and thus flock to these areas.

These normally docile and shy animals are normally threatened by big cats like pumas, but humans have been their most fearsome predators in the last few years.