Belize is Home to many Amazing Creatures but if we had to narrow it down, here’s our Top 10 fave Belize animals:

1. Jaguar – You already know why, they’re stealthy and chic in motion. The chances of really seeing them in the wild are very rare but don’t fret, just hop over to the Belize Zoo nearby!

2. The Keel-billed Toucan-  This strikingly colorful bird is also the National Bird of Belize.

3. Jesus Lizard – Don’t be fooled by its dead stillness or its cute little dinosour look. If you get close enough to touch it, before you even see it move, it will have your finger in a vice grip with its razor sharp teeth and won’t let go until it feels you have shed enough blood for it to make a run for it, and it does that so fast too, that’s why it can run across water before it has time to sink!

4. Maya Coral Snake – This beautiful Maya Coral Snake can be very difficult to see and her neurotoxic venom is the most dangerous in Belize.

5. Whale Sharks – The Whale Shark is the largest fish in the world, and one of the largest creatures of any kind alive today. And they love Placencia as much as we do!

6. Howler Monkeys – Usually hanging around all the Maya ruins, when they howl you may confuse them for a certain dinosaur (Understandable since Spielberg used them in Jurassic Park for T-Rex’s vocals!).

7. King Vulture – Known as “King Jancro” in Belize, is the largest and most colorful of the four species of vultures in Belize. Their extremely thick and strong bill is well adapted for tearing, and their long, thick claws for holding the meat.

8. The  male Green Iguana – Despite its name, becomes larger and orange in color during its breeding season. It is protected and can grow 6 feet in length.

9. Sea Turtles (Green, Hawksbill, Leatherback and Loggerhead) can be seen in the waters of Belize. They live at sea and the females come ashore only to lay their eggs.

10. Crocodiles – Belize is home to 2 types: the American Crocodile can live in both saltwater and freshwater, while the smaller Morelet’s Crocodile lives only in freshwater. Both are on the Endangered Species list.

When Sharon Matola impulsively started The Belize Zoo – the best little zoo in the world – in 1983, most locals had no idea what their national animal – the tapir – looked like, or the magnificent Harpy Eagle. Today it is the most interesting and diverse “reserve” in Central America, housing mammals, reptiles and birds in their natural habitat.

Matola has enjoyed a colourful career – with stints in the circus and filmmaking. Documented in the book The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird (2008), by Bruce Barcott, she fought against the Challilo Dam Project in Belize and has lead the way as Belize’s premier wildlife conservationist and educator.  Sharon is more commonly known in Belize for her love of jaguars, as she personally nursed back to health a wounded jaguar, “Angel”, who lost her leg in the wild. Her story continues to unravel each and every day.

For more information visit: Ultimate Belize Adventure.

Home to the world’s first and only jaguar reserve, Belize has one of the healthiest populations of jaguars (Panthera onca) in Central America. Endowed with a brilliantly spotted velvet coat similar to that of a leopard, this elusive feline prowls the coasts and roams the lowland rainforests. The “yaguar” – meaning beast that kills with one leap – is well-adapted to its diverse habitats as it agilely and stealthily hunts its prey in trees or water, making it one of the few members of its family tolerant of water.

Integrated into the sacred and secular realms of Mayan Mythology, the jaguar is said to possess the transient ability of moving between worlds because of its comfort both in the trees and the water, the ability to hunt both in the daytime and in the nighttime, as well as the habit of sleeping in caves – places often associated with the “Xibalba”, the underworld.

As of today, an estimated fifteen thousand jaguars remain in the wild, six thousand of which live in Central and North America. Being the largest cat in the Americas and the third largest in the world, a wild jaguar can live between twelve and sixteen years. Adult jaguars are solitary in nature and only come together for a short period of time to breed. The average litter size is one to four cubs that remain with their mothers for two years before seizing their territories. Food availability dictates the size of its territory; in a forest such as the Cockscomb Basin, where its prey base includes deer, fish, peccaries, rodents and tapirs, a jaguar often roams over a territory of about 20 square kilometers of natural habitat.

For more information on how you can interact with Belize’s jaguars, visit the Ultimate Belize Adventure.