Bladen Nature Reserve
Motus Wildlife Tracking System Background: What is Motus?
Part I in a five-part series Motus is a relatively recent program in Belize. But what is Motus? What is it used for? Who uses Motus, and how is it beneficial? These are possibly just a few questions which may come to anyone’s mind upon hearing the word for the first time. There is a…
Read MoreBFREE Wildlife & Conservation Status Directory
BFREE Program Manager, Tyler Sanville, used data created by visiting and resident biologists to develop a complete list of the known organisms with the exception of snails, insects, and butterflies documented to date in the BFREE Reserve, along with their IUCN Status and Population Trend. Known species found on the BFREE Privately Protected Area include…
Read MoreDocumentarians visit BFREE
Professional photographers, videographers, and documentarians Jorge Silva Rivera and Carlos Miguel Herrera traveled from Chiapas, Mexico, to BFREE for 10-days in February 2022. Working with Zamia Media, the pair set out to document the people, facilities, wildlife, and natural beauty of BFREE. Zamia Media will then use the images and videos captured during their time to…
Read MoreCongratulations Drs. James Rotenberg and Vibeke Olson on your retirement!
Congratulations to long-time BFREE supporters, field course leaders, researchers, and adventurers, Drs. Jamie Rotenberg and Vibeke Olson on their recent retirement from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Extraordinary husband and wife team, Jamie and Vibeke, have been visiting BFREE for nearly two decades as professors bringing field courses, as researchers, with their graduate students,…
Read MoreBFREE Fellows Participate in Ranger Weekend
BFREE’s Science and Education Fellowship program is a two-year immersive training opportunity for recent Belizean junior college graduates who exhibit leadership potential combined and a clear interest in the conservation of the country’s natural resources. Each Fellows are assigned one of three focal areas based on their interest and experience, Wildlife conservation – Hicatee Conservation, Sustainable…
Read MorePale-billed Woodpecker Sighting
Liberato (Gato) Pop was a BFREE Avian Technician from 2006 – 2013. He began working with us when he was just 16 years old as a member of the Harpy Eagle research team. Gato now works as a Park Ranger for TIDE but continues to do contract work with us from time to time. He…
Read MoreBFREE’s Bounty of Birds
For the past three years, BFREE has had Harpy eagle visitors in late February. So that means we are spending a lot of time looking up! Scouring the tops of trees like Ceiba and Prickly Yellow where we’ve seen them previously perched in hopes that 2021 will be good to us. We’ve recorded 20 separate…
Read MoreLand Snails of Belize Book Receives Five-Star Reviews!
In 2019, we shared that 17 new land snails were discovered in Belize by husband and wife team, Dan and Judy Dourson, and their colleague, Dr. Ron Caldwell. Before the team’s research began in 2006, only 24 species of land snails were reported from Belize. Over the next decade, a total of 158 native land…
Read MoreUn-Belizeable Land Snails Activity
Land snails in Belize can be found in a variety of habitats. They are important food for many birds that live in Belize including currasow, crested guan, and other larger birds. Coatis and other mammals also eat land snails. Biodiversity: The health of an ecosystem can be determined by the different kinds of land snails…
Read MoreBFREE Support Leads to Discovery of New Sedge Species
Robert Naczi, Curator of North American Botany, New York Botanical Garden On the morning of 7 January 2008, my students from Delaware State University and I hiked from BFREE to the savanna in Deep River Forest Reserve. Our goal was to establish plots and identify all sedges within these plots in order to test hypotheses…
Read More