History

Zoo director Sharon Matola’s accidental career began when, as a former lion tamer, she agreed to manage a backyard collection of local animals for a nature film company next door. However, after she had worked only five months on the project, funds were severely reduced, and it became evident that the group of animal “film stars” would have to be disbanded.

Sharon says that not only had these wild cats, birds, anteaters, and snakes become her friends and companions, but semitame animals, dependent on people for care, could not just be released back into the wild. As an alternative, she thought, “This country has never had a zoo. Perhaps if I offered the chance for Belizeans to see these unique animals, their existence here could be permanently established.”

And so a zoo was born. From the very beginning, the amount of local interest in the zoo was incredible. The majority of the people in Belize live in urban areas, and their knowledge of the local fauna is minimal. The Belize Zoo offers Belizeans and tourists alike the opportunity to see the native animals of Belize.

Jaguar Restoration

In collaborations with the organization Panthera, the government of Belize, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Belize Zoo runs the only problem jaguar rehabilitation program and in situ jaguar research program in the world. Problem jaguars (which prey on livestock and domestic animals) are trapped and brought to the zoo for behavior modification training—instead of a bullet. In difficult cases, the animals are transferred to zoos in the United States (both the Milwaukee County Zoo and the Philadelphia Zoo have received problem cats from Belize).

© Joshua Berman and Avalon Travel from Moon Belize, 7th Edition