For most of my childhood, my family lived about a mile-and-a-half from the main entrance of the Detroit Zoological Park. I loved the zoo, and its proximity made me feel some sense of ownership. I learned its ins and outs, where all of its many exhibits were located, and betimes I would skip school and hang out at the zoo.
More recently, Elizabeth and Joe and I have visited the GarLyn Zoo in the UP, whenever we get the chance. Its much smaller, obviously, but all the animals are special. It’s a rescue zoo, populated only with animals who can’t make it in the wild. Some were found sick or injured, some survived hunters, some had been the pets of people who thought they could care for exotic animals, and soon learned otherwise. It’s a wonderful place, and I recommend it.
Now, enlarge that zoo two or three times in size, tenfold in budget, and translate the whole thing to the tropics. The result will be something very much like The Belize Zoo. It too contains only rescue animals. But here, these are jaguars (including a rare black one), a puma, ocelots and margays, parrots, macaws and toucans, tapirs, coatimundis and capybaras, and many others.
Set in the middle of the Belize jungle, the zoo’s mission is both to rescue and care for all its residents, but also to educate the populace, both of Belize and the rest of the world, of the value of protecting these wonderful animals and their environments. A tall order, and the zoo engages it with vigor and style. And because it has many nocturnal animals, the zoo offers night tours. Small groups walk with flashlights and a guide after dark, visiting the tapirs, the big cats, the owls and a few other beasties.
It’s been called the best zoo south of the USA, a claim not difficult to accept.
Elizabeth
Henry
This sounds so amazing. I wish all zoos were like this. And how ideal that you had a “private” night tour! For me, this would be worth the whole trip.
The night tour was fantastic. It was just the three of us and a zookeeper (in our case, the big cat man) and a bucket of food – bananas, cucumbers, and other yummies – as well as a little tub of raw chicken bits. Since many of the animals are nocturnal, and almost all are people-friendly, we got to interact a lot more closely with the animals than one usually does. The ocelot was chatty and a bit of a show-off; the puma purred the whole time we were there, and, as Joe says, the tapirs were downright cuddly. All the animals are in very appropriate habitats, and all of them seemed very happy, and not bored, as zoo animals so often do. We loved it.
Glad to hear you brought snacks with you. The big cat man sounds intriguing. Was he a rescue, too?