Wildlife of Belize

After reading a recent article entitled The Beasts of Belize I started thinking of the wildlife I have experienced in Belize.  Over the past couple of years I have had the privilege of seeing many of the animals that Belize has to offer.  During my time in Belize I made sure that I didn’t limit my experiences to only what I felt comfortable with.  I had already picked myself up and relocated 3000 miles from my original home in Oregon so why not try it all in Belize?  If it scared me there was even more reason to try it out.   So I trekked through the jungles, floated on the rivers and swam in the ocean and during those adventures I kept my eyes open to see anything I possibly could.

The following is a list of the animals and insects I have seen in Belize and a brief description of the circumstances in no particular order;

Dolphins

It took awhile for me to see my first dolphin in Belizean waters – it happened a year after being in the country and my mom and I were taking a ride from Corozal to Chetumal, Mexico for the day.  We were riding over in a friend’s boat and spotted a pod of dolphins – it was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.  I was running all around the boat to keep my eye on them.  They stayed with us for about 10 minutes and went on their way and I had a smile on my face for that entire day.  I had never seen a dolphin in the wild and it was an amazing experience.  After that trip we have been lucky enough to see little pods of dolphins on other occasions on the water but the most memorable was going out for a quick ride from Corozal to Sarteneja on the day of my mom’s best friend’s funeral – the funeral was being held in the states and we were having our own little memorial on the water in her honor.  A couple dolphins came up to the boat to play around just as we were throwing flowers in the water.  Dolphins were an extremely special animal to my mom’s friend so it was so fitting that they would show up right at that moment.

Snakes (boa and coral)

I moved to Belize with my mom and she has a severe phobia of snakes.  I am not terribly fond of them but I don’t have the same feelings she does so seeing a snake in Belize wasn’t going to be a deal breaker for me but the one announcement she made about moving to Belize was that as soon as she saw a snake she would be moving back to Oregon.  It was about a month in to our move to Belize that we saw our first snake.  One night our two dogs were on our back patio barking like crazy – it wasn’t usual so we went outside to investigate.  They were in a corner together barking at something on the ground – sure enough it was a snake.  It ended up being a boa constrictor about 6 feet long.  My mom freaked out and I took pictures.  We didn’t want to kill it since a boa wasn’t going to hurt us so a neighbor picked it up and took it out to a field to let it go.  Mom didn’t move back to Oregon.

Our second encounter with a snake could have been a little more dangerous.  Once again it was at our house.  One morning my mom was working out in the yard and started yelling frantically at me to come outside.  She had spotted another snake – this time it was a coral snake in the yard.  I ran out to see and it looked dead but I wasn’t going to just pick it up so I grabbed a nearby shovel and poked at it for awhile.  It did not move at all and was clearly dead so I scooped it up with the shovel and threw it out in the bushes.  We have no idea how it died but were glad we didn’t have to deal with a live coral snake at the house.

Crocodile

I was so disappointed with the lack of crocodile sightings I had experienced in the first year I lived in Belize.  I had been down the New River from Corozal to Orange Walk a few times where there have been plenty of croc sightings and had yet to see one.  I was starting to think I never would until one day we decided to go out on a friend’s skiff on the New River following a day of constant rain.  My friend made the comment that we may see crocodiles since it was a sunny day following a very rainy one.  That day I saw 35 crocodiles swimming in the river or on the shore sunning on the 90 minute ride from Corozal to Orange Walk.  They were everywhere and every size.  I saw crocodiles from 8 feet long down to a foot and it was incredible.  I will not be swimming in that river anytime soon but the thrill of seeing all those amazing animals was priceless.  They were all still out on the way back so we got a double dose that day and it was exciting.

Sharks
I have not been diving or snorkeling with the nurse sharks in Shark Ray Alley off Ambergris Caye but I have seen a few sharks from the safety of a fishing boat.  The first experience I had with a shark was out deep sea fishing with Capt. J – we were in a school of black fin tuna and reeling them in.  All of a sudden Capt. J was on the back of the boat with a tuna on the line and a bull shark came up on the line and snapped the tuna up while simultaneously getting hooked on the line.  The shark thrashed around on the line just behind the boat before getting loose but it was a pretty exhilarating experience to be reminded of the dominant creatures out there.  Our second bull shark sighting was also out on a deep sea fishing excursion and also while we were in a school of tuna.   About 20 yards off the boat we saw its shadow – he came up a few times but mostly just tooled around to see what was going on with the tuna.  That shark must have been 20 feet long.  I was extremely careful to not fall off that boat.

Margay

My margay experience was a rare one.  Belize is home to a few different wild cats and one of them is the margay.  A margay has a coat very similar to a jaguar but on a much smaller cat.  They live in trees and are the only cat that can go down a tree head down.  Margay’s prey on birds and frogs since they live most of their lives in trees.  They are very independent animals and typically roam around alone.  One day in a small village outside of Corozal word was out that there was someone selling the pelt of some sort of wild cat and also selling a little cub.  It was a heartbreaking situation.   One of my friends had the opportunity at that point to do the best thing he could for the little cub and that was to obtain it and get it to the Belize Zoo.  That is exactly what he did and in that process I got to see this little guy up close and personal.  He was a wild cat though and he made that very clear with his surprisingly frightening roar and sharp claws so we kept our distance.  We took him on the 90 minute car ride to the zoo (you can read about that entire experience here).

Birds

You can see beautiful birds every day in Belize but the birds that stood out the most to me were the green parrots that flew early in the morning and just as the evening was hitting.  They have such a distinct sound and travel in groups.  I always loved being lucky enough to see these birds make their way home in the evening chatting away to each other.  There are two other highlights with bird sightings in Belize and one was the one time I saw a toucan in the Cayo District on a jungle horseback riding adventure and one time I saw a nesting hummingbird at the Cotton Tree Lodge just outside of Punta Gorda.

Scorpions, Tarantulas, Roaches and Grasshoppers
Not all creature sightings in Belize are pleasant ones.  I’ve been startled more than once by a grossly over-sized roach hanging out on a door – once I even let out a blood curdling scream from closing my front door for the night and just as I closed the door I saw a 3 inch long roach staring back at me exactly at eye level about 5 inches from my face.  Baby scorpions made rare occurrences at our house – I never actually saw the mom running around.  As far as the tarantulas, they always seem to want to cross the dirt road right in front of our vehicles.  Once we stopped to see one up close since he stopped in the middle of the road.  They are very interesting creatures and much more delicate than people would think.

Insect are all over Belize – from pesky mosquitoes to beautiful dragonflies.  There will not be a day that goes by without some small critter passing through your life.

Monkeys

I’ve had the privilege of seeing spider monkeys and howler monkeys in the wild.  My spider monkey sightings were on a tour of the Lamanai ruins as well as in the Cayo district.  They are playful little guys and very fun to watch swing around the trees.  The howler monkeys I’ve seen were also at Lamanai – they were up in the trees howling away (this establishes dominance).  I’ve also heard howler monkeys at the Cotton Tree Lodge just outside of Punta Gorda in Southern Belize.

Geckos and Lizards

Geckos are a daily sighting in Belize and produce a sound you get very used to hearing.  My cats even know what a gecko sounds like and when they start to talk the cats go hunting.  The geckos eat mosquitoes so I leave them alone.  Lizards are also a common sighting – I’ve seen all sizes, colors and shapes of lizards all over Belize and they are all fascinating.

Manatee
It took almost two years before I saw a manatee and I was so disappointed about this because all my other friends had spotted them already.  I always looked a little late after one had been spotted.  Finally on a trip to 4 mile Lagoon on our friend’s boat a manatee decided to play around with the boat.  She swam around us for a good 20 minutes and I could finally say I saw a manatee.

Kudamundi

kudamundi  or  squash as the local Belizeans call these nocturnal animals.  They have a long tail but a rodent like nose.  They are curious little animals and most of the time I caught glimpses of them scurrying across a road but we had a couple sightings at our house as well.

Fish

I have seen a wide variety of the fish from my deep sea fishing and snorkeling adventures in Belize – from tiny parrot fish to small marlin.  We have caught dorado, tuna, barracuda, shark and hogfish.  I have seen jelly fish and sting rays.  The barracuda love to stalk me in the water while I’m snorkeling and someday I will learn to not be afraid of them but they still make me nervous since I’m on their home turf in there.

These are the animals I have seen in the wild out in Belize but I have also visited the Belize Zoo where you can view jaguars, eagles, parrots, snakes, pikary, crocodile, grey fox, tapir and many more.  Belize is full of wonderful wildlife and it’s so unpopulated that the animals can still be spotted if you’re in the right place at the right time.  If you have experienced Belize then post a comment and let us all know what your favorite Belize wildlife moment was.