Program Overview
Got a spirit for adventure? Would you walk long distances to see scarlet
macaws, Baird's tapir and the elusive jaguar? Then come along on the Winter
Session in Costa Rica, where you can earn 6 credits studying Costa Rica's
rich and varied ecosystems.
The program combines field analyses of tropical biodiversity with
discussions of the most controversial issues in conservation biology,
using the Costa Rican National Park system as a model for tropical
conservation. You'll study the ecological and evolutionary causes of the extraordinarily high levels of biodiversity in Costa Rica, the ways in
which such diversity benefits humans, and the history and politics of
conservation, preservartion and restoration projects in Costa Rica.
Traditional lecture and discussion format is supplemented with hikes and
hands-on projects in the tropical dry forests, coastal mangroves and
volcanic cloud forests of Guanecaste National Park, the montane mist
forests of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, the Pacific rainforests of
Corcovado National Park and the Atlantic rainforests of La Selva Biologial
Station.
You'll live and eat at the research facilities used by the world's
leading tropical biologists and will see an unimaginable diversity of
insects and birds, squirrel, howler, spider, and white-faced capuchin
monkeys, as well as numerous endangered species including American
crocodiles, tapirs and quetzals. And you will witness what few other
humans ever have; thousands of sea turtles laying their eggs on the beach
in a massive arribata.
With the exception of food purchased in the airport, the program fee includes all meals.
UD students pay all program fee deposits by direct bank transfer via this website: http://www.udel.edu/studyabroadpayments. Non-UD students should send a check, payable to the University of Delaware, to CFIS, Elliott Hall, 26 East Main Street, Newark, DE 19716. Credit card payments are not accepted.
