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| Junior Buddy, one of the biggest draws at the Belize Zoo. |
This has been a slow school year for big cat sightings, at least compared to last school year. I would need two hands and a foot to count the number of wild jaguars and pumas that I saw from the beginning of last school year until I headed home for the summer in June of 2013. This year I am yet to see a puma, and though I saw my first jaguar, while driving, shortly after I returned to Gallon Jug in August, I had a sightings drought, that coincided with this year's never ending wet season.
In recent weeks things have changed. On Friday we had our Casey Community School end of year field trip to the
Belize Zoo and Bacab Eco-park. The Belize Zoo is touted as the best little zoo in the world. In my experience this is hard to argue. The zoo is home to only animals that can be found in Belize. The animal inhabitants are all rescue animals, nuisance animals (that were relocate to avoid being killed), or animals that have been born in captivity. The zoo is located on a jungle acreage between Belize City and the capital city of Belmopan. All of the animal enclosures are built into the natural jungle of the location.
Seeing the jaguars, and other big cats, is quite the experience at the zoo. In each of my trips to the zoo I have been absolutely astonished at how well camouflaged these felines are. Staring into an enclosure, it can take minutes to locate the cat that is invariably staring right at you just a few yards away- leaving me to wonder how many jaguars and pumas see me in my travels in and around Gallon Jug that I am oblivious to.
Today luck was on my side. This afternoon I biked the 6 miles from my home in Gallon Jug proper to Chan Chich Lodge to meet up with a friend and from there bike to Sylvester Village (about a 20 mile ride all told). There are a few land marks on the way to Chan Chich, a small bridge that is about 2 miles from my house, and then a junction where the road splits into a scenic loop about 2 miles further up the road, that is about 2 miles from the lodge. When I was at the half way point between the bridge and the loop I had the good fortune to bike up on a medium sized jaguar casually strolling down the road in the direction of the lodge. I stopped my bike about 75 meters from the jaguar and watched it for about 30 seconds as it made its way around a curve in the road. When I biked around the curve it had 'disappeared' into the jungle.
Arriving at the lodge, I made a beeline for the sightings board to record my encounter, and then headed off to meet up with my friend and continue the ride. It just so happened that my friend had recently confided that she'd not seen a jaguar in years. I told her of my excitement in seeing the cat, and also of my disappointment that the cat had not waited an hour so that we could both have seen it. Jaguar sightings are rare enough that it's good to have a witness to corroborate the sighting.
On the way back towards Gallon Jug we saw a new born baby deer and a clutch of baby turkeys (aka poults), two fun sightings for this time of year. I was just about to pass a remark about how close I thought we were to the spot I'd seen the jaguar when we rounded a curve on the road and there it was, the same jaguar, continuing its jaunt towards the lodge - and just 30 yards away!
Today's bike ride was part of a fitness kick that I have been on for about the past 2 months. With lobsterfest only a few weeks away, it's a good time to be getting in shape, but my impetus for getting back into daily exercise was another carnivore encounter.
Towards the end of March I had a meeting to attend in Orange Walk (2+ hours drive from Gallon Jug).
I took a few others with my that needed
to visit Orange Walk that day, including a young man from the village that had
a cut on his foot that needed attending to. Everything went great with
the meeting, assorted errands, and getting the foot fixed. We headed back
to Gallon Jug with an eye on making it home before dark. Between Orange Walk and Gallon Jug there are
about 40 miles of road through 'civilization' and 20 miles of jungle road. We got to the stretch of jungle road at about
5pm, plenty of time to navigate the road before dark.
At about 5:20, and what turned out to
be 4 miles from the Gallon Jug gate, my Jeep sheared a pin and broke an axle. Belize’s
location in Central America is far enough South that the sun doesn’t stay up
much later than 6pm. The odometer on my
Jeep is not particularly accurate, but all of us in the vehicle discussed where
we thought we were, and come to the consensus that the gate couldn’t be
much farther that 2 miles away…wishful thinking perhaps. There’s no cellphone coverage in the jungle,
so with the prospects of getting stranded over night, or making a 'run' for the
gate, I volunteered to jog for it. Lucky for me the kid that had his foot
stitched up and I have the same shoe size, so I was able to trade my flip flops
for his crocs.
The first 2 miles of the run passed
pretty slowly, I was dejected around every turn when I didn’t see the sign reading 1 mile to
Gallon Jug gate that I was hoping for, then I came around a curve and saw a BIG
jaguar coming down the center of the jungle road about 50 yards ahead of
me. Now let me say that this was pretty cool, as I had only seen jaguars
from my car prior to this, and also got my adrenaline pumping a bit because it
was getting dark, I had no real idea how close to the gate I was, and there was
a freaking jaguar on the road in front of me.
I clapped my hands to get the big cats
attention and he decided to hop into the jungle, which was fine with me as I am
not a great tree climber. I quickened my pace, made frequent looks over
my shoulder to make sure I wasn't being followed, and made really good time the
final 2 miles to the gate.
The gate guard was able to radio ahead to Gallon Jug for a ride home. By
the time dark set in we were safely headed back, and I had made two resolutions
that I’ve done a pretty good job sticking with 1) always bring running shoes on
trips into the jungle and 2) get more cardio exercise.
So, it's not looking like I will make it to double digits for cat sightings this school year, but I'll take quality over quantity and be plenty happy with whatever my final count ends up.
stir in PARMESAN cheese and PARSLEY.
