Today we left Glover’s, ate a delicious meal at Calypso’s, and traveled all the way to Tec Zoo!

Tec Zoo is the Belizean Zoo that holds 117 individuals and 44 different species! While building Tec Zoo, all the natural vegetation was kept in an effort to make the zoo large and provide a natural environment for all the inhabitants. Most of these animals are here due to anthropogenic reasons such as: they were hurt crossing the road, illegal poaching and pet trade, or conflict with humans (especially between farmers and big cats).

We saw jaguars named Sylvia and Lindo. Jaguars are amazingly strong and beautiful big cats. Each jaguar has a unique pelt pattern so that is one way that scientists can monitor and identify big cats.

We got to feed and pet a tapir named Indie! Tapirs are large (400 lbs) herbivores which are related to rhinos and horses. It is also Belize’s national animal. It was so cute and so soft! I loved it’s snout!

We also got to see an ocelot named Rayburn feeding! Fun fact: ocelots make growling noises as a greeting and this particular ocelot made growling noises while eating. It sounded like an “om-nom-nom” sound (It was hilarious).

I also saw several of my taxa today- beetles!! I saw a beetle being eaten by a spider at dinner and there were beetles in the bathrooms. At the zoo, many people got to hold this dark brown beetle which is about an 1 inch long. I am not sure its exact species name but I believe after looking at pictures that this is a type of scarab beetle! I hope to learn more about the beetles tomorrow.

Chow! Peace and Love <3

~ Maegan