Saving manatees and monkeys in Belize

At Wildtracks there is an air of quiet excitement as the replacement Wildtracks Endangered Species Rehabilitation Centre building reaches completion and equipment and operations are transferred from the temporary operations base to the new facility. This year has seen the replacement of the original facilities, constructed to support environmental education activities more than 20 years ago, then repurposed in 2000 to support manatee rehabilitation, and then primate rehabilitation in 2010.

Video: Moving In...the New Wildtracks Facilities!

The new facilities provide separate, dedicated spaces for manatee and primate food preparation, a big step forward, as is having dedicated storage areas for both. It also includes a new ‘fruit room’, with holding space for the multiple crates of banana, papaya, melon, dragon fruit and mango that arrive each week for the animals. This has made delivery and unloading easier, and provides direct access for use in the food prep areas – with less handling and moving of fruit. The largest space is the clinic, providing a dedicated, equipped space for health assessments, first aid, intensive care and on-site veterinary procedures by partner vets, as needed. The construction and equipping of the purpose-built Centre has been supported your generosity...both as donors and for those who have also volunteered your time, caring for the manatees and primates in our care, significantly strengthening Wildtracks’ capacity for ongoing rehabilitation of these endangered species. 

We are also very excited to share that Zoe Walker, a director of Wildtracks Belize, has recently been in the UK, where she received two MBEs from King Charles III (one for herself, and one for her husband and co-director, Paul) for their contribution to the conservation field and endangered species rehabilitation in Belize. The award, first announced in January, is one of the highest to be given in the UK, and states...

"Paul and Zoe Walker are widely recognised in Belize for working tirelessly towards the conservation of Belize’s endangered species, tropical forests and reefs. They founded their organisation, Wildtracks, in 1990, and continue to lead its activities more than 30 years later. As part of the Wildtracks conservation work, Paul and Zoe established the National Manatee Rehabilitation Centre in 1999 to provide rehabilitation care for orphaned and injured Antillean manatees rescued from Belize’s coastal waters. In 2010 they established the National Primate Rehabilitation Centre for Belize’s Yucatan black howler monkeys and Central American spider monkeys confiscated from the Illegal Wildlife Trade to ensure that these endangered primates can be returned to the wild.

Since its inception in 1990, Wildtracks has responded to numerous wildlife emergencies, rehabilitated 174 primates and returned over 100 back to the wild, reestablishing these species in critical forest areas. Wildtracks also collaborates with the Forest and Fisheries Departments of the Government of Belize and other national and international conservation organisations towards effective and sustainable management of Belize’s natural resources. Their work has brought great credit on the UK and its reputation in Belize and beyond."

It's not every day we get to meet and chat with a King!

Our current in-care manatees, Kit and Kat, are both doing very well - Kat arrived as a newborn calf, but is one of the largest new borns we have encountered! Our smallest calf intake, Hope, was a tiny 0.9 m and 24 lbs. Kat, however, at the same age, arrived at 1.3? m, and weighed in at ...lbs. Our smallest and largest! Kat is growing well and is redefining how we estimate the age of manatees of her size.

Our Nursery Unit group of howler monkeys now numbers four (Nico, Billie, Luna and Mimsie). All are enjoying the nursery lifestyle of lounging around, playing together, drinking milk and eating fruit and browse. They are less impressed, however, by the dark clouds, rain, thunder and lightening storms that pass through as we go into the storm season. Like the howlers in the forest enclosures, they tend to go into 'sleep mode', waking late with a lot of resting and sleeping in between the showers.