Happy Birthday Junior Buddy!

From Sharon . . .
On February 25, 2009 we celebrated Junior Buddy's 2nd Birthday!!! More than 100 children were happy to share this 'big day" with our famous education jaguar. The celebration brought attention to the fact that jaguars need our protection, so that they can survive into the future.

The Belize Zoo is located SMACK in the center of Belize's "Jaguar Corridor," a string of forests that support these majestic animals.

The Democracia Gibnuts, a famous group of rock 'n rollers from our neighboring pre-school, sang Junior Buddy his very own song, and local television covered the happy occasion. Click here to listen to a grown-up version of the song.

Children received education handouts and stickers from Education Director Celso Poot, and to round out their fun day, cupcakes and fresh lime juice were served to all!

As for Junior Buddy? He seemed to love all of the attention!

Zoo volunteers get the job done!

From Sharon...

Don Griffin is a "retired guy who can do just about anything," and he recently volunteered his skills for a month at the Belize Zoo. Don is an amazing guy! Besides fixing anything that needs fixing, he is also skilled at refurbishing skeletons--and his talents in this area enhanced the zoo's "Dem Bones" exhibit at the Puma homestead. While staying at the zoo's Tropical Education Center, Don became a big fan of kayaking on the Sibun River, where he saw (among other things) otters, coatimundi, and big iguanas. He also got to see Jabiru Storks on the river, which he described as "a thrill". We at the Belize Zoo are fortunate that thousands of people like Don from all over the world donate their time, money, energy, and skills to support our work. If you'd like to support our work by becoming a member or donating to the zoo, check out the membership page of the Belize Zoo website.

SUNY Cortland meets Cortland the Margay

This is a guest post from student Linda . . .

On Wednesday, January 7th our group from SUNY Cortland got a guided tour of the Belize Zoo from its founder and director, Sharon Matola. Many of the animals hurried to the edges of their enclosures to greet Sharon and get their share of the special treats she brings them. She told us how each animal had come to live at the zoo and related other characteristics she’s noticed while working with each animal.

I am a cat lover and was really looking forward to meeting the ocelot, puma, jaguars and margays at the zoo. I was not disappointed, and I will never forget the experience of seeing these beautiful animals up close in their native habitat!

The two adult margays that are on exhibit at the zoo were sleeping as our group passed by their enclosure. The pair was curled up comfortably on a tree branch, so we only stopped briefly, but I lingered longer than the others in hopes of seeing some activity. Our group had just finished visiting the howler monkeys, and as a result the howlers were still making the loud, scary noises they are famous for. One of the margays seemed annoyed by the noise, and walked down the tree and began moving about in the pen. I tried to snap a picture but my camera wasn’t fast enough to keep up with him and he was well hidden by the foliage. I waited, hoping to sneak another peek and possibly a photo, but after a few minutes I decided I should catch up with the group.

The last stop on our tour was to see Cortland, the female margay cat born this past August. Sharon explained that Cortland is not on exhibit at the zoo; she is being reserved for purposes of photography. Sharon decided split us into two groups of eight, because she feared a large group might frighten Cortland, since she usually sees only Sharon and the zookeepers that care for her.
My long anticipated wait was about to end; Cortland would become a firsthand experience. I volunteered to be amongst the first group going in. As we entered Cortland’s pen, I hoped she would be awake. The darling was curled up on a tree branch and upon being aware of our presence, she peered back at us. It was around this time that I felt something biting my toe. This moment was important so I did my best to ignore the pain. I was no longer able ignore the almost burning sensation and looked down to see several fire ants crawling around on my left foot. My first thought was, “why now?”

While the others were “oohing” and “aahing” over Cortland’s beauty, I was dealing with a fire ant attack! As fast as I could I brushed the ants off my feet and ignored the pain. As my attention returned, I focused on Cortland and snapped some pictures of her. After a couple of minutes Cortland climbed to a higher tree branch. Her ears began to twitch. Was she listening to the group’s chatter? Was she curious or afraid? I asked Sharon. Sharon responded that she wasn’t sure; she’d not yet seen this behavior from Cortland.

Upon returning home, I decided to research Cortland’s reaction to our encounter. The information I found referred to cats in general, and stated that cats will twitch their ears whenever prey is near. Had Cortland moved to a higher branch because she viewed us as prey? It seems unlikely given how large we were compared to Cortland’s 18” frame, but according to Sharon she is one tough cat, so maybe she thought we’d make a nice value-sized meal?

Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve

Many visitors to Belize take advantage of the great variety of places to visit and plan some day-long excursions like our group did. In case you might be interested in a side trip, the following post summarizes our full-day trip to Mt. Pine Ridge and to the Green Hills Butterfly Farm.
We left the TEC at approximately 8 a.m. and took the long bus ride to a Pine Savannah reserve, Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. Geographically, it was not as long in distance as one might think for a nearly 3 1/2 hour trip one way, but because the terrain was extremely rough, our bus traveled very slowly and carefully over the mostly dirt roads, over hill and dale, up the mountain.

On the way there we stopped at Moonracer Farm for a chat with Tom and Marge Gallagher and a brief hike around. If you are looking for a place to stay in this area of Belize, Tom and Marge have some great accommodations, and I encourage you to check it out!

I laughed a little when I looked up the web link for Mt. Pine Ridge, because it says it is not accessible by bus, only by car. After our trip, I can understand why they say that. Stanley did an amazing job getting us there on our big, white bus. (And we even got a flat tire, discovered just before we left to go back, and thank goodness we had a spare! Stanley and Peter changed that giant bus tire in the heat in 15 minutes flat!)



This reserve is unbelievably beautiful, and it was worth the long and bumpy trip! We enjoyed swimming in the cool and clear pools, and the students (and Matthew) slid down the natural water slides!

"Within its boundaries are the Rio Pools, a popular site for a summer picnic, where the river cascades down into a narrow cavern strewn with granite boulders. It's a great place to spend some time enjoying the deep pools and clambering around the enormous granite rocks."

[Remember to click on photos to enlarge them.]

On the way home, we made a stop at Green Hills Butterfly Farm where noted biologist Jan Meerman refreshed us on the life-cycle of the butterfly and showed us around the butterfly house, full of blue morpho butterflies, prevalent in Belize, among others.