Conservation
BFREE is for the People!
Visiting volunteer, Autumn Dietrich captured these incredible candid images of many of the BFREE staff that show the incredible and inspiring faces behind our important and necessary conservation work. It wouldn’t be possible to be the successful conservation organization that we are today without the people who make BFREE. A special thanks to Autumn for…
Read MoreDetermining sex ratios on captive-born Hicatee
The March bi-annual health assessment for Dermatemys mawii began on Saturday, March 5, and will wrap up on Tuesday, March 8, 2022. This is the first health assessment since March 2020 that we’ve been able to invite participants from abroad. The Hicatee Conservation and Research Center has experienced successful breeding of our captive population of…
Read MoreDocumenting Dermatemys mawii courtship, breeding, and nesting
by Thomas Pop and Jonathan Dubon Last year, HCRC Manager, Thomas Pop, and Wildlife Fellow, Jonathan Dubon, separately witnessed two amazing events during their daily work at the Hicatee Conservation and Research Center. Tom observed captive Dermatemys mawii (Hicatee turtle) exhibiting courtship behavior and mating and later Jonathan recorded a female Hicatee laying eggs. Both events…
Read MoreFrom Seeds to Trees
A couple of years ago, the Jobillo tree next to the house where I live at BFREE, began dropping flowers. The dry season was in full force, so it must have been around May when I noticed the first bunch of delicate, perfect, pale, white blooms. I collected a few out of curiosity and asked…
Read MoreIntroducing #CantiCam
This July, BFREE launched a new wildlife monitoring program with Panthera Wildlife Cameras. These cameras are designed to endure the wet, humid rainforest conditions and are perfect for the BFREE Privately Protected Area. Protected Areas Manager and Head Park Ranger, Sipriano Canti, is tasked with managing the project. Canti states “With this monitoring program, we…
Read MoreMeet BFREE’s Newest Fellow, Mark Canti
A Little About MeI was born in a subtropical climate during the rainy season in my native village of Golden Stream. It is located along the main highway, a couple of miles south of the BFREE junction. I do not remember much of my childhood, but I sure remembered how much my parents loved, cared,…
Read MoreCongratulations to Jaren Serano, BFREE’s first Wildlife Fellow alum!
Congratulations to BFREE’s first Wildlife Fellow alum, Jaren Serano, who recently graduated with honors from Jacksonville University. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Sustainability and Minor in Biology in June 2021. Jaren helped launch the BFREE Science and Education Fellowship Program in January 2018. With the support of the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), Jaren…
Read MoreWildlife Fellow, Jonathan Dubon Embarks on 2nd Year
Jonathan Dubon is the second Wildlife Fellow to take part in the BFREE Fellowship Program. Jonathan began working with BFREE in June 2020, immediately after the shelter-in-place order was lifted in Belize. He assists Tom Pop at the Hicatee Conservation and Research Center (HCRC), and although his program began during the COVID pandemic, his first…
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 More