The Belize Zoo

This is a tapir. They are the national animal of Belize
and are related to rhinos and horses.

Mondays class was on bones. We went over some of the main bones and then had to piece together different skeletons. Since I haven't taken anatomy I didn't really know how to identify more than vertebra, ribs and of corse the skull. So this task was kinda difficult for me. I hope there Aren't too many questions on the final.

Tuesday we spent ALL day at the zoo. We got to do a lot of "behind the scenes" stuff like go into enclosures to hand feed some of the animals and see a lot off animals that are off limits to the general public. They were hit by a big hurricane last fall so part of the zoo is closed for repairs. After a quick tour around the zoo we got to spend some time with the main attractions.

Baby tapir. 

We started with feeding the tapirs and got to pet the baby tapir.
Next we got to meet the jaguar Fear Master and he was 'trained' to roll over and give high fives. He of course was in an enclosure but we were able to go up to him and give him the signal to roll over and give us a high five. After we rewarded him with pieces of chicken. Yes, I fed a jaguar a piece of chicken through a fence but he was still super close.

Roll over. 

Now High Five!

 And if that wasn't cool enough we got to have the ultimate jaguar experience with a jaguar named Junior. The set up is kind of weird to explain so here is what we got to do

View from outside the jag enclosure

My view from inside the little cage. 

They bribed him with treats to jump on top of the cage so we could rub his belly and feel his paws. It was so unbelievably awesome! After jaguars it was time to do a necropsy on a fawn that had died the night before. We determined that he was beat up by the alpha male. Then it was time for lunch. When we got back we went on rounds with some keepers to feed the animals. I followed one who was in charge of feeding the birds of prey. It was kind of sad because they feed them baby chicks. You know the cute yellow fluffy ones you see every Easter.

This is an albino coatimundi who also eats chicks

And all the birds rip them to shreds. I tried to feed a harpy eagle, but I guess he wasn't too fond of people in scrubs.






When rounds were done we went to the zoos education center across the street where we stayed in little cute cabanas for the night.

After dinner we went back to the zoo for a night tour. I got to hold a boa and see a lot of the animals that weren't up during the day like the peccary a type of wild pig, kinkajous, the puma, and we got to bring out the boa.

As if we didn't spend enough time at the zoo we went back for morning rounds on Wednesday. This time we got to help prepare the meals. I had to chop up lots of fruit for the tapirs and deer.

Also I got to play vet and give a tapir some eye drops for an eye infection. 

After lunch we drove on over to Belize Bird Rescue to do check ups on some parrots and transfer them from a small enclosure to a larger pre release aviary. We had to catch them which was a challenging task and I quickly learned that parrot bites hurt bad.