The wildlife in Bocas del Toro, on Panama’s Caribbean coast, runs from strawberry poison dart frogs and sloths in the rainforest to dolphins and reef fish in the water. It is easiest to see on Isla Bastimentos, a largely undeveloped island where much of the land is protected and La Loma’s guides have worked the forest for years.
At first light, a strawberry poison dart frog, red and no bigger than a thumbnail, sits low among the leaves near the trail. A sloth hangs so still in the canopy that our lead guide Mr. Kelly points it out before you have any idea it’s there. Some mornings dolphins surface on the boat ride into the bay. Other mornings, the water is quiet, with nothing but the sound of tropical birds.
How much you see usually comes down to who is walking with you. Mr. Kelly has worked these trails for 22 years and knows which roots the frogs sit under and which trees the sloths favor, and he leads the Cacao and Permaculture Farm Tour on our property, where a good deal of the wildlife turns up on its own.
This guide covers the wildlife you can see across Bocas del Toro, where to find it, and how to spot it once you are there. Most of it comes together on Isla Bastimentos, where La Loma sits on a private reserve above a sheltered bay called Bahia Honda, next to the Ngäbe-Buglé community that most of our guides call home.
La Loma’s wildlife and birdwatching tours head out early from the property, when the birds are most active, with our nature guide Roger Milton who grew up in the Bahia Honda community and have spent their lives in this forest.
What Wildlife Lives in Bocas del Toro
Bocas del Toro is one of the most biodiverse corners of Panama, a Caribbean archipelago where lowland rainforest runs right down to the reef. Here is what you can reasonably hope to see.
On land:
- Strawberry poison dart frogs
- Two-toed and three-toed sloths
- White-faced capuchin and Panamanian night monkeys moving through the canopy
- Butterflies, lizards, and the occasional opossum
- Hummingbirds, herons, parrots, and dozens more birds
In and around the water:
- Bottlenose dolphins
- Reef fish over the coral, including angelfish, wrasses, and groupers
- Mangrove life, crabs, small fish, and the young of larger species
You won’t see all of it in one trip, and that’s part of the fun. The rainforest and the reef here are both still healthy, and you’ve got a good chance at the animals people come for, the sloths, the red frogs, the dolphins, especially with someone along who knows where they tend to be.
Isla Bastimentos: The Island to Know for Wildlife
If you are new to the area, Isla Bastimentos is the island known for wildlife. It is one of the largest islands in the Bocas del Toro archipelago and far less developed than the main hub of Isla Colón, with one small town, no roads, and jungle covering most of it. Because so much of the island is protected and so little is built on it, wildlife is easier to find here than on the busier islands.
Most of that protection comes from the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, established in 1988 as Panama’s first marine protected area. It covers about 132 square kilometers of forest, mangrove, and reef, and the park’s terrestrial section alone holds well over a hundred animal species.
The island’s north shore faces open Caribbean surf, with Long Beach (Playa Larga) running 5.6 kilometers along it, a stretch of heavy waves and, most days, no one on it. La Loma runs a hike to Long Beach from Bahia Honda through the dense island interior for guests who want to see that side of the island.
What You’ll See on Our Property Trails
Tucked into the rainforest on the sheltered south side of Isla Bastimentos, La Loma’s 55-acre reserve is one of the easiest places in Bocas to see a range of wildlife on foot, before you have booked a single tour. Two trails leave from near the lodge, the red and the green, both free to explore on your own and open through the day. This is the easiest wildlife on the island to find, because it comes to you.
The strawberry poison dart frog is the one most people want to see. Locals call it the red frog, and the beach on the north shore is named after it. It is small, bright red, and true to its name, so you look but don’t touch. On the trails around Bahia Honda you find them low in the leaves and around tree roots, most often in the cool of early morning. The red is the classic Bastimentos color, and the archipelago is known for frog color morphs found nowhere else.
Sloths are the other animal people hope for, and Isla Bastimentos has both two-toed and three-toed. They move rarely and hang high in the canopy, so without a guide you can walk right underneath one and never spot it.
The rest of the rainforest buzzes with smaller life. A butterfly crosses the trail in the sun, then another. A lizard holds still on the bark until you are a step away. White-faced capuchins and Panamanian night monkeys move through the canopy on the higher parts of the property, and the treetop bungalows are one of the better places to watch for them.
After dark, the trail transforms. La Loma’s night hike goes out with a guide to find the animals that only move at night, the nocturnal frogs calling from the undergrowth, insects you would never notice by day, the occasional opossum, and bats leaving the trees. The night hike is a paid add-on, as the guided tours here are, with our cacao and permaculture farm tour the one that comes included with every stay.
On the Water and the Guided Tours
Some of the best wildlife sits a short boat ride from the dock, and this is where a guide who can read the water makes all the difference. La Loma’s tours are small-group and run by local Panamanian guides who know the bay by season, which mangrove channels the dolphins feed in, where the sloths hang along the water, and which reef is holding fish that week.
The Wildlife Sightseeing tour is the broad one, a morning on the boat through the mangrove channels looking for sloths in the trees along the water, dolphins in the bay, and the frog trail on the way back. Bottlenose dolphins move through Bahia Honda and the wider Dolphin Bay, and on a good morning they surface right beside the boat.
Birdwatching goes out earliest, not long after first light, when the forest is loudest. A guide who can name a bird by its call is the difference between a blur in the leaves and a Montezuma oropendola, or the seasonal three-wattled bellbird you hear long before you see.
The Zapatilla Islands day tour runs out to two small islands at the edge of the marine park, with mangrove channels and islets and starfish shallows along the way and open-water snorkeling over the reef once you arrive. The coral reefs near the Cayos Zapatilla hold nearly 80 species of coral, some believed to be over 10,000 years old, with angelfish, wrasses, and groupers around the coral and, on a rare day, a spotted eagle ray in the deeper water. There is also the bat cave, a boat trip into the Bahia Honda cave system where bats live inside by the thousand.
Booking for any of these is through the property, and current times and prices sit on La Loma’s activities page.
How to See It: Go With a Guide Who Grew Up Here
How much of this you see comes down to who is with you, and this is where La Loma is different. Our guides are from the Bahia Honda Ngäbe-Buglé community, and they learned about this jungle as children, long before it was a job.
Mr. Kelly has guided here for 22 years. He knows which tree a sloth favors, where the frogs sit at dawn, and which call belongs to which bird, the kind of ground knowledge no species list can give you. He also leads the two-hour Cacao and Permaculture Farm Tour, a walk through thousands of pesticide-free cacao trees that turns up as much wildlife as the trails do.
That local knowledge is the whole reason guests see what they see. A visitor walking the trail alone might pass a sloth ten times over. With Mr. Kelly, you stop, he points, and there it is.
The guides, the trails, and the farm come with every stay at La Loma.
See our bungalows and current rates.
Tips for Spotting Wildlife in Bocas del Toro
- Go early. Birds and most mammals are most active in the first few hours after sunrise, which is why the birdwatching tour leaves close to dawn.
- Look, don’t touch. The red frogs carry a mild toxin, so photograph them and leave them where they sit.
- Don’t plan around the weather. There is no reliably drier or sunnier month in Bocas, and the animals are here year-round regardless.
- Take a guide for at least one outing. It is the single biggest difference between hoping to see wildlife and seeing it.
Why La Loma Is the Best Base for Wildlife in Bocas del Toro
La Loma is one of the few lodges on Isla Bastimentos with a working cacao and permaculture farm on site, which means wildlife is not something you drive out to find. It is on the trails between your bungalow and breakfast. The seven open-air bungalows are set into a private rainforest reserve above Bahia Honda, part of the habitat rather than walled off from it, reached only by boat and by the jungle steps that keep the day-tripper crowds away.
What ties it together is the people. The guides, the farm, and the kitchen are run by members of the Bahia Honda community, and a stay here puts their knowledge of this jungle at the center of the trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Wildlife Can You See in Bocas del Toro?
Bocas del Toro is home to strawberry poison dart frogs, two-toed and three-toed sloths, white-faced capuchin and Panamanian night monkeys, and a wide range of birds on land, and bottlenose dolphins and reef fish in the water. On Isla Bastimentos, where much of the land is protected national marine park, wildlife is easier to see than on the more developed islands. La Loma’s trails and guided tours cover both the forest and the bay.
Are There Sloths on Isla Bastimentos, and What Kind?
Yes. Isla Bastimentos has both two-toed and three-toed sloths. They live high in the canopy and move little, so they are easiest to see with a guide who knows where to look. Around La Loma, the treetop bungalows and property trails are good vantage points.
What Is the Red Frog of Bocas del Toro?
The red frog is the strawberry poison dart frog (Oophaga pumilio), a small, bright red amphibian under an inch long that lives in the leaf layer of the rainforest floor. It carries a mild toxin, so the rule is to look and photograph, not handle it. Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimentos is named for it.
Can You See Dolphins in Bocas del Toro?
Yes. Bottlenose dolphins are common in the sheltered bays around Isla Bastimentos, including the water near Bahia Honda and the wider Dolphin Bay. They are often seen from the boat on the way to and from La Loma and on the wildlife sightseeing tour.
What Is the Best Time of Year to See Wildlife in Bocas del Toro?
Wildlife is visible year-round in Bocas del Toro, and no single month is reliably better than another for it. Day to day, early mornings are best for birds and the night hike is best for nocturnal animals.
If you would rather wake up inside the rainforest than visit it on a day trip, La Loma sits on a private reserve above Bahia Honda, reachable only by boat, with the trails, the guides, and the farm a few steps from the bungalows. See our seven open-air bungalows and check dates on the accommodation page, and browse the guided wildlife and birdwatching tours on the activities page.
