Can I Expect To See Wildlife in Belize?

The Maya Mountains is an excellent place to see birds and monkeys. Take an edifying hike through the Mayan Mountains where a guide can help you spot keel-billed toucans, blue crowned motmots, trogans, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds — to name just a few. Check out the trails in the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve.

Belize is home to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, where jaguars have established a healthy population. It’s unlikely to see a jaguar, but there’s plenty of bird watching to do, and lots of lush forest trails. Keep an eye and ear out for the Montezuma Oropendola.

While you’re hiking, you may hear warnings to look out for a poisonous brown snake. The fer de lance is known as a “Tommy Goff” in Belize, and it is venomous but quite rare.

Go snorkeling and scuba diving to see Belize’s thriving marine ecosystems. The Belize Barrier Reef is a protected natural wonder, and is the second-largest coral reef in the world. Besides the barrier reef, Belize also has a smattering of small islands and atolls that you can visit to explore wetlands. Hol Chan Marine Reserve on Ambergris Caye is one of the top places in Belize to take a boating tour to look for sharks and manta rays. Travel to the isolated Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve by boat for a rare opportunity to see both nesting sea turtles and manatees.

There’s also the Belize Blue Hole, an underwater cave that’s a favorite destination for scuba divers. While the hole itself doesn’t have an impressive variety of wildlife, the Lighthouse Reef that surrounds it attracts a wide variety of tropical fish and sharks.