The Belize Zoo Needs Your Help!
The Belize Zoo is asking for help for one hundred and fifty plus residents. The zoo has closed its doors and, like many other entities, it is unable to earn funds during this time. Founding Director Sharon Matola says that they have received a positive support from the business community and many Good Samaritans. But the zoo needs additional support, so she is asking those who can give to please extend the generosity to the animals of the best little zoo in the world.
On the Phone: Sharon Matola, Founding Director, The Belize Zoo
“Any meats would be really valuable. Our Harpy Eagles eat meats and of course we have all those jaguars to take care of. Vegetable wise, yeah, for the monkeys and anything green; if we had a bunch of cecropia we could keep the monkeys happy every day. We go out and look for these items ourselves. If someone has a backyard full of leafy greens, we could definitely put them to good use. One thing we sure could use are small fish for the pelicans Pelicans and Jabiru storks. That seems to be a hard item to get a hold of and we have special services designation so we can come and pick up items from people if they are not allowed to travel. So, mainly that is it. It is hard going every day. Believe me, anything we get for the animals, I so appreciate. Everyone is in the same boat and having the support of our public shows me that they love the zoo and that is why I stay here and develop it for the people of Belize. I will never regret doing that. We have close to two hundred animals and some of them have been breeding lately like the colored peccaries; our yellow head parrots have eggs; our barn owls have eggs; so we have to be aware that we have new comers coming up. So, it is our responsibility to maintain happy animals through unhappy times. Thanks to the support we have gotten from local businesses and local people, I think we are going to see this through to the end. It is something very important; it’s important for Belize. We are positively optimistic that one of these days we will reopen and when we do, we will have a beautifully run zoo with happy animals. They really are still happy.”
Matola says that they are working on setting up a virtual Belize Zoo for you to follow along online with the happenings at the zoo!
