The Hicatee, as Dermatemys mawii is known in parts of its range, is truly a unique turtle. Although fossil records indicate that closely related species once occurred across Central America and Europe, Hicatee remain as the only living representatives of a formerly species-rich family of turtles. It is a large turtle, sometimes exceeding 22 kilograms. […]
BFREE is located in the headwaters of the Bladen Branch of the Monkey River, a large tropical river that discharges to the Caribbean Sea south of Placencia. Despite the pristine character of the headwaters the Monkey River watershed has been home to Belize’s banana industry for nearly 100 years, with particularly intensive cultivation since the […]
Biannual health assessments continue to serve two important purposes. 1) They allow us to check the general and reproductive health of all captive animals, and 2) they enable us to continue to gather growth data which is added to our long-term dataset on the species. Understanding whether or not our turtles and their environment are […]
17th Annual Symposium on the Conservation and Biology of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles Each year since 2002, the Turtle Survival Alliance and IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group hold a symposium on the conservation and biology of tortoises and freshwater turtles. BFREE staff have participated regularly ever since the inception of the Hicatee Conservation […]
During the early March Hicatee Health Assessment, a total of 214 turtles were assessed at the Hicatee conservation and Research Center (HCRC). The primary purpose of the spring health assessment was to perform a basic exam of the overall health of the captive population at the HCRC. Because oviposition takes place between the months of […]
The first workshop on the Land Snails of Belize was led by biologists, Dan and Judy Dourson, and took place at the BFREE field station in late February. The workshop’s goal was to give participants an understanding of which snails can be found in southern Belize and to train them to identify land snails with […]
Designed to study the reproductive biology and to determine if the Central American River turtle could be bred in captivity, the Hicatee Conservation & Research Center opened in 2014 and was met with immediate success when, in the summer of 2015, the first seven hatchlings emerged. This was followed by five hatchlings in 2016, 84 […]