Biodiversity
Chacocente has 276 species of fauna and 47 different species of mammals. Notably, there are 86 species of birds, four species of cats, and three species of monkeys (Coria, 2015). Chacocente is undoubtedly most famous for the many turtles that come to the beaches to lay their eggs. Chacocente is one of only nine beaches in the world that has arribadas, a mass nesting of turtles, where between July and December up to 5,000 olive ridley turtles arrive in one night to lay about 100 eggs per nest. The arribadas take place normally on new or full moons (Coria, 2015). Other turtles at Chacocente are the endangered leatherback turtle, the pasalama turtle, the torita turtle, the tora turtle, and the carey turtle. Four in seven of the world’s sea turtles come to Chacocente (Coria, 2015). The most common turtle that spawns at Chacocente is the pasalama turtle, which specifically does so at the La Flor beach reserve and at San Juan del Sur. Over a million pasalama turtles are born each year (Explore Nicaragua Online).