Research
Let’s Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day in Belize!
Join BFREE in the great world-wide celebration of migratory birds during the entire month of March! Below are educational resources and additional information for you to use in your classrooms. We encourage celebratory events throughout the month of March such as educational presentations, cleanups, and other habitat restorations as well as bird walks, and creative…
Read MoreIn Pursuit of Hicatee in Belize by Day Ligon
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.…
Read MoreHerp Survey at BFREE
Article by, Iris Holmes This May, a group of researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, visited BFREE to do a survey of amphibians and reptiles. They worked for two weeks, both on the BFREE property and at Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. Between these places, they recorded 47 species.…
Read MoreBFREE Receives Porras Conservation Award
It’s not often international wildlife conferences hold their annual meeting so close to home. Fortunately, the International Herpetological Symposium (IHS) chose Belize City as the base for their 42nd gathering and we are so glad they did! The International Herpetological Symposium (IHS) provides a forum for the dissemination of information and research pertaining…
Read More17 New Species of Land Snails Discovered in Belize
17 New Species of Land Snails Discovered in Belize By Dan and Judy Dourson The beautiful country of Belize, known to the rest of the world for its stunning reef and adventure tourism, has a new claim to fame as home to seventeen new species of land snails! This information was uncovered thanks to a long-term study…
Read MoreSoaring with Solar
After 23 years of BFREE being an off-the-grid solar powered field station, nothing has changed, except now we have a centralized 7.5 kw state of the art solar system which is 7 -10 times more productive and has energy storage capacity more than 20 times what was on-site before. The system also has a backup…
Read MoreEmily Buege – Fish Research on the Bladen River
My name is Emily Buege, and I’m a master’s student in the geography department at the University of Alabama. I’m finishing my first year in the program with my thesis fieldwork at BFREE! Originally from Dakota, Minnesota, I grew up on a state park, so I’ve always been close to nature. I obtained my undergrad…
Read MoreWorkshop designs strategy to safeguard long-term survival of the Hicatee turtle in Belize
On February 25-26, 2016, Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE) in collaboration with Turtle Survival Alliance, the Belize Fisheries Department, and the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens hosted the 2nd Hicatee Conservation Forum and Workshop at the BFREE Field Station in southern Belize. Unique to Belize, Guatemala and Mexico, the Central American River Turtle,…
Read MoreFirst captive bred Hicatee Turtles hatch at HCRC
Six months after a clutch of eight Hicatee eggs was found buried at the waters’ edge at the Hicatee Conservation and Research Center (HCRC) in December of 2014, hatchlings began to emerge from their eggs. These are the first hatchlings in the captive breeding program established by the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) and BFREE at…
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