Number Of Animals Kept In Costa Rican Households
This survey conducted among Costa Rican households found that 71% of all households keep animals. 53% keep dogs, 15% keep cats, while 24% keep other types of wild animals including birds, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and invertebrates. Conservative estimates place about 151,288 parrots as companion animals. In contrast, an estimated 59% of American households (AVMA 1997), about half of Dutch households (Vinke 1998) and 64% of Australian households (McHarg, Baldock, Heady & Robinson, 1995) own a companion animal.
Although the majority of companion animals are domestic animals, wild animals can be either legal or illegal exotic pets. The study of wild species as companion animals has been studied in several countries including the United States (22% of US students report keeping a wild animal at home), Germany (9.2% report wild animals as companion animals), and England (10% of students from South East England). The majority of non-domestic species kept as companion animals are birds, mostly parrots.
For the purposes of this study, wildlife was defined to respondents as “any animal that usually lives in the forests, lakes, rivers or the sea: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and invertebrates.” The results of this survey of Costa Rican households found that:
- Of the 721 households that kept companion animals, 92% kept domestic species, while 33.3% kept wild species.
- 5% of households kept wild species exclusively, while 18.5% kept both domestic and wild species, and 65.6% kept domestic animals only.
Incidence (%) of various species of domestic animals in Costa Rican households (% do not add up to 100% because some households have more than one companion animal, N=1021):
- Dog (53.0%)
- Chicken (20.3%)
- Cat (14.8%)
- Cattle (6.2%)
- Budgerigar or cockatiel (4.8%)
- Horse (4.5%)
- Pig (4.4%)
- Canary (4.1%)
- Rabbit (3.2%)
- Goldfish (2.7%)
- Duck (2.5%)
- Goose (1.8%)
- Turkey (1.6%)
- Hamster or guinea pig (1.1%)
- Goat (1.1%)
- Pheasant (0.6%)
- Sheep (0.4%)
- Peacock (0.3%)
Incidence (%) of various wild species kept in Costa Rican households, which may add up to greater than 100% due to multiple companion animals. (Data given for % of households with wildlife n=240 / % of all households n=1,021):
- Parrots (7.1% / 18.1%)
- Other wild bird (8.7% / 2.1%)
- Fish in aquarium, not goldfish (11.3% / 2.6%)
- Turtle in aquarium (7.9% / 1.9%)
- Tortoise (6.3% / 1.5%)
- Iguana (.8% / .2%)
- Agouti (.8% / .2%)
- White-tailed deer (.8% / .2%)
- Toucan (.4% / .1%)
- Spider monkey (.4% / .1%)
- Howler monkey (.4% / .1%)
- Squirrel (.4% / .1%)
- Spiders or insects in terrarium (.4% / .1%)
- Species not reported (5.8% / 1.4%)