Laguna Seca morning

How many Belize Field Notes readers (that are former Lodge visitors) have visited Laguna Seca? It's a wetlands system that extends northward across the Gallon Jug Estate property. If you are visiting Chan Chich Lodge, be sure to take the excursion from the Lodge for a leisurely Laguna Seca walk. There is a nice path wending its way through fairly extensive Maya ruins. Both spider and howler monkeys can almost always be seen there. For birders, specialties include the Agami heron, Northern Jacana, Least Bittern, and Black-collared Hawk. Of course the surrounding forest is filled with the "usual" cast of tropical birds.

There's more. Not long ago I posted about a "procession of peccaries." That video was taken at Laguna Seca. Last night when we returned to do a survey, there were the peccaries again, in the same spot. I could see they were attracted by the low water levels and nice cool mud wallows. Next project: get a photo of them wallowing...

A Procession of Peccaries

Gorgeous morning today in Gallon Jug, sunny, breezy, about 80F. We like to walk on Sundays, so we headed out to Laguna Seca, a vast wetlands system extending northwards across the Gallon Jug Estate property. The great thing about Gallon Jug is the sense that, even after our 25 years in Belize, anything can happen, that the jaguar is just around the next corner.

In this case, it wasn't a jaguar but rather, a procession of peccaries. White-lips, or warrie, to be exact (Pecari tajacu) . This is the "big" peccary and a species that requires large forested areas to forage for their preferred food items. I was able to get out of the car and approach them slowly on foot in order to get this video. You can see that they were fairly unconcerned. I didn't push it by going too close or attempting to make them scatter. They tolerated our presence for a long time before easing off into the bush when we finally slowly moved the car forward.

By our estimates, there were about 6o of them that crossed the road, a good sized herd. And I'll repeat my mantra: because of good protection here on the Gallon Jug Estate, this large herd of a heavily hunted species, appears to be thriving. Believe me when I say they are wiped out in many areas of Belize, Central and South America.

Foggy Peccary

So it must have been a rainy and humid day, given the fogginess of this image, taken in July near Chan Chich Lodge. But, I hope you'll make allowances since I'm sharing a new species with you ... a collared peccary(Pecari tajacu) . Belize has 2 peccary species, the other being the "warrie" or white-lipped peccary that I've written about before.

Even though the collared peccary is the more common of the two and quite frequently seen, for some reason, it hasn't been photographed recently. Since it can inhabit all sorts of habitats, that is a little surprising. This species is found in the southwest USA continuing south to Argentina. Its pig-like snout is adapted for rooting around on the ground for roots, tubers and even invertebrates and small vertebrates that make up its diet. Found singly, or in groups of up to 20, this is another important member of the biodiversity near Chan Chich Lodge.

Road Crossing

A herd of white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) dashes across the trail near Chan Chich. I'm more accustomed to them hanging out in front of the camera for awhile (see earlier post on white-lips), checking things out. The caution shown here makes me wonder if they are concerned about a predator in the area. Possibly a jaguar, known to follow peccary herds?