Nature-lovers alike will thrill at the brilliant colors and diversity of plant and animal life in Belize including birds, cats, fish, and other mammals. In the extraordinarily clear waters of the Belize Reef lives an amazing world of colorful limestone corals and incredible variety of fish and sea mammals.
Click on the links below to learn about all these interesting and amazing creatures found in Belize.
In the waters of Belize, there are shy, colorful queen angelfish and french angelfish; rainbow parrotfish; schools of bluestripped grunt; Nassau grouper; yellowtail snapper; as well as large green moray eels; nurse sharks; barracuda; and the ever-graceful stingrays, eagle rays, and mata rays. Bottlenosed dolphins, manatee's, and sea turtles can also be seen by divers and snorkelers.
The uniquely diverse environment of Belize supports a wide variety of exotic plants and animals, including the fearsome piranha, birds, jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, armadillos, and anteaters. Belize is also known for its cats, including the endangered nocturnal Jaguar; the beautiful striped and spotted ocelot; the Jaguarundi; the puma or mountain lion; and the margay, the smallest of the Belizean cats (weighing in at about 11 pounds). In addition, you'll find monkeys such as the black howler monkey and the smaller spider monkey, as well as the ant-eating tamandua, the omnivorous coati, and the piglike collared pecarry. With it's lush trees and brush, Belize is home to more exotic rarely seen birds than almost any other location in Central America. From the spectacularly hued keel-billed toucan (the national bird of Belize) - to the king vulture.
Despite its small size, Belize supports a relatively diverse range of plants and forest habitats. It is home to an estimated 4,000 species of flowering plants, including over 730 tree species and some 280 orchid species. For these reasons, Belize has been called "a Garden of Eden," and it is one of the few countries where thousands of acres of forest are still in semi-pristine condition.
Due to its somewhat northerly latitude (15º to 19º N), Belize is considered sub-tropical, with varying rainfall, temperatures, and humidity throughout the country effecting even the growth of the common mangrove.
Among the plantlife of Belize you'll find mangroves, bamboo, palms, and swamp cypresses, as well as ferns, vines, and flowers creeping from tree to tree, creating a dense growth.
Further south in the Toledo district you'll encounter classic tropical rainforest species, including tall mahoganies, campeche, sapote, and ceiba, one of the tallest trees in the jungle. In this remote area you'll also find exotic orchids in many sizes, shapes and colors. Of the 71 orchid species reported in Belize, 20% are terrestrial (growing in the ground) and 80% are epiphytic (attached to a host plant - in this case trees - and deriving most of it's moisture and nutrients from the air and rain).
