The Belize Zoo

Last night we went to the La Democracia Zoo, which rescues, confiscates, and helps injured animals. The first thing we saw was boa constricter that was seven feet long. We got to hold it if we wanted. I held it in front of me, and Sarah let it drape around her neck! After leaving the reptile room, we entered the dark zoo. We had to turn on our head lamps to see the animals. The first mammal we saw was the tapir, Belize's national animal. It has a long snout to find its food, and it can pee backwards, which it did. Luckily, no one was hit. Juan told us it's closely related to a rhino, but it is small compared to that--about the size of a very large dog. Next we saw a crocodile, and we got to throw food into its habitat to feed it. It was huge. Afterward we entered the Cat Phase of our zoo visit. There are five species of cats in Belize, and we saw four at the zoo--puma, jaguar, ocelot and margay. The margay is the smallest of the cats, about the size of a house cat, and it is spotted. Its coat looks like a leopard or cheetah coat--so beautiful. After seeing the margay, we were able to see the ocelot, which looks very similar to the margay, except a little bigger. Then we saw a jaguar, which is the largest of the cats and also spotted. His name is Junior. He had been orphaned, so he has lived at the zoo most of its life. Junior did a cool trick where he climbed some beams high into the air and was rewarded with some fresh meat. He is gorgeous. The last cat we saw was the puma, the second largest cat in Belize. He is big with a plain, beige coat. His paws were so huge! Lastly we saw the Howler Monkeys, and I know how they got their name. Juan made a noise to make them howl, and they went crazy. It was pitch black, and all these monkeys were making major noise. Their howls sounds more like a wheeze, but it was crazy! We came back to camp after our visit to the zoo with the sounds of the howler monkeys echoing in our ears.

George Mullowney