Toledo science fair highlights birds
There are few Belizeans who have not heard of or visited the Belize Zoo, but not everyone may be aware that the zoo’s outreach and educational activities extend far beyond its compound on the Western Highway…today as far as Punta Gorda. News 5’s Janelle Chanona reports.
Jacqueline Woods
Eager to put their label of the “forgotten district” behind them, residents of Toledo are embracing new employment opportunities in the eco-tourism market. But right behind the moneymaking ventures, are the environmentalists, making sure the district’s abundant, but fragile natural resources are protected. Since the late 1980s, the Belize Zoo has spearheaded the Toledo Outreach Education Program to promote environmental education, especially in rural communities.
Today, that initiative has become this…an annual science fair.
This morning, an estimated two thousand children from all over the Toledo district, some from as far away as Jalacte and Otoxha, invaded the Punta Gorda Sports Auditorium with months of work in hand. This year the event focused on the five hundred sixty-five species of birds that call Belize home.
Celso Poot, Education Director Belize Zoo
“Birdwatching is an integral part of eco-tourism business down here in P.G., so they’re focussing on that. They see an avenue for further venture career wise.”
Using materials at their everyday disposal and their own creativity, the children demonstrated their knowledge about their feathered friends. Finding some of the facts took research, but others relied on common sense.
Rozanne Dawson, Forest Home
“The most common bird in Toledo is known as the black bird.”
Overall, the students say they had fun tracking the animals.
Rozanne Dawson
“Some of them have some all different kind of colours. Some of them were bright, bright, bright nearly like purple. Bright purple, red with green, orange, all of them mixed up.”
Janelle Chanona
“Was it fun going back and finding out what kind of bird that was?”
Rozanne Dawson
“Yes ma’am.”
Janelle Chanona
“How did you do that? Did you look in a bird book?
Rozanne Dawson
“Say we see a strange bird, sometimes we go in the bird book and sometimes I ask my teacher.”
But the young scientists also discovered the severe impact both man and nature can make on their bird community.
Vilma Assi, San Luis Rey Roman Catholic School
“We’re getting a shortage of birds because of the hurricane destroyed out habitats. So we’d like to protect the birds that are left now.”
Janelle Chanona
“You’ve seen less birds since the hurricane?”
Vilma Assi
“Yes.”
Janelle Chanona
“What kind of birds you’re not seeing again?”
Vilma Assi
“Toucans. We usually see toucans in our village.”
Janelle Chanona
“And now you no see them?”
Vilma Assi
“No.”
Elvin Augustine, Jalacte RC Primary School
“They have lot of logging…they cut too much lumber and the birds have to go away because their homes are getting destroyed. Some people get slingshots and they sling the birds and they are getting killed and less birds are in Belize. People use it just to see them in their homes and show people, that’s why they have it in cages. Sometimes they eat it! I no think that’s a good thing, because when they eat a bird it’s just a piece of meat.”
Janelle Chanona
“Do you think people in Belize respect birds?”
Karah Flores, Bethel Adventist School
“Some of them. I say some of them because there are some people, although they know that our birds are extincting, they still go and kill the birds and that is way we pick to talk about the endangered species because we know that our birds are extincting. Right now people in Punta Gorda, they notice that the birds of Belize bring money to Belize, and that the birds they need their habitats, that we shouldn’t keep them at home. We would want them to have them as pets, but they would prefer to be in the forest, free.”
According to Education Director of the Belize Zoo, Celso Poot while the schools participate freely, sponsorship for the event doesn’t come cheap.
Celso Poot
“The schools in the Toledo District welcome our presence in their classroom. What is difficult is for us to get the funding to bring these schools out into town, because it’s very expensive. Today we have twenty-four schools and we bussed all of those schools into town.”
While the event only lasts one day a year, organisers hope that the information shared today translates into changes were they count, at home. Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.
First place in the large schools category went to St. Peter Claver, while Indian Creek took second. For the smaller schools, Golden Stream took top honours with San Miguel as runner up.
