Half Day Hike at Arikok National Park & Snorkel
Park pass includedTransport includedSnorkel gear
From $115 per person
Wildlife in Arikok National Park
Aruba sits outside the hurricane belt on a dry, wind-scoured shelf of the South American continental plate, and the animals that live on it have had long enough alone to become their own. Four of the species in Arikok National Park exist nowhere else on earth.
The shoco, and where it stands
The shoco is the Aruban burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia arubensis, and it is the national symbol of Aruba. It is small, ground-dwelling and active at dawn and dusk, and unlike most owls it nests in burrows rather than trees — which on this island means holes in sand banks and old termite mounds. The Aruba Conservation Foundation runs a monitoring programme for it and lists it as endangered.
Seeing one is a matter of hour rather than luck. Early morning and the last hour before the gates close are when they are out, and the sand banks along the interior tracks are where to look.
The cascabel, and why you will not meet one
The cascabel is the Aruban rattlesnake, Crotalus unicolor, and it is found nowhere else in the world. It is a pale, sandy-brown snake, it is critically endangered, and estimates of the wild population run in the low hundreds. ACF runs a monitoring programme with local and international researchers.
Encounters are rare enough to be an event rather than a risk. The snake is nocturnal in the hot months, retiring by nature, and the park's own advice is simply to stay on the paths — which is the rule anyway.
Cododo: the blue lizards on every wall
The cododo is the Aruban whiptail, Cnemidophorus arubensis, and it is the animal every visitor photographs whether they meant to or not. Males turn a bright blue-green along the flanks and tail in the breeding season and they are entirely unbothered by people, which is why they end up sitting on the wall beside the cave staircase while somebody eats a sandwich.
Alongside them, the santanero — Baker's cat-eyed snake, Leptodeira bakeri — is another Aruban endemic, and Hummelinck's vesper mouse is a rare endemic rodent that almost nobody sees.
Birds beyond the shoco
The prikichi, the Aruban parakeet, is a small green bird that travels in noisy groups and is the one most likely to be heard before it is seen. The lora, the yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot, was locally extinct on Aruba and was reintroduced in 2024 — a genuinely recent piece of conservation history that most guidebooks have not caught up with.
Species and conservation status from the Aruba Conservation Foundation, which runs the monitoring programmes.
| Papiamento | Species | Status | Where to look |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shoco | Aruban burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia arubensis) | Endemic, endangered | Sand banks, dawn and dusk |
| Prikichi | Aruban parakeet (Aratinga pertinax arubensis) | Endemic, endangered | Anywhere with trees, in noisy groups |
| Lora | Yellow-shouldered Amazon | Reintroduced in 2024 | The interior, rarely |
| Cascabel | Aruban rattlesnake (Crotalus unicolor) | Endemic, critically endangered | Very rarely seen at all |
| Cododo | Aruban whiptail (Cnemidophorus arubensis) | Endemic | On every rock and wall |
| Santanero | Baker's cat-eyed snake (Leptodeira bakeri) | Endemic | Nocturnal, rarely seen |
| — | Hummelinck's vesper mouse | Rare endemic rodent | Almost never |
Guided departures with a naturalist
The cacti the landscape is built from
Three cacti do most of the work. The cadushi is the tall candelabra column that gives the interior its silhouette; the kadushi's fruit was eaten and its wood used for fencing. The bushi grows in dense thickets and is what makes going off-path a bad idea. The tuna is the flat-padded prickly pear. Among them stand the divi-divi and the kwihi, both of them permanently bent westward by a trade wind that never stops.
Wild goats and donkeys, neither of them native, are the animals most visitors actually meet on the roads. They are descended from stock brought to the island centuries ago and they are the reason the park asks you to keep to 20 km/h. The walking routes on the trails page are the best way to see any of this properly, and the things-to-do page puts it in the order a first visit should take.
The animals are easiest to find early, which is the same hour the guides aim for and the same hour the light is best. Departures that leave at the gate opening are marked on Arikok National Park Tours.
Guided days with time to look for it
Aruba Outback Safari Jeep Tour - Lighthouse, Arikok & Conchi Pool
Hotel pickupLocal guideMax 56
From $121 per person