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Earlier this the Belize Zoo reported that an adult female jaguar was found lying on the roadside of the George Price Highway - the victim of a car accident. We reached out to Dr Celso Poot at the Belize Zoo who gave us more details about this unfortunate case. Jomarie Lanza has this report.

The Maya Forest Corridor serves as a critical passage for wildlife in Belize but at times the same wildlife trying to find a safe space to move to often becomes victim to RTA's and are left on the roadside for dead, like this jaguar for example that was fatally struck 2 nights ago near mile 37 on the George Price Highway.

Celso Poot, Operations Manager, TBZ
"Our colleagues over at the foundation for wildlife conservation who manages the Runaway Creek nature reserve, they first recorded this female Jaguar in runaway creek in 2023. So we had a photographic record of this cat which was named F23 being the first female recorded in the year 2023. Our other colleagues at the old zoo site, the savannah field station recorded this jaguar last time in December of 2024 so we know that Jaguars have these unique patterns of their pelt, on their skin and so that is how we are able to identify individual jaguars.So we compare the patterns they have and we can say this is the same jaguar that was 10km away on Runaway Creek."

The cat was estimated to be around 5 to 6 years old, but that wasn't the saddest part about this particular Jaguar death; it turns out, she was also pregnant and carrying not one but 2 cubs.

Celso Poot, Operations Manager, TBZ
"And so when we picked up the carcass we were able to share it with our colleagues and we were able to identify that this cat was already recorded during research and monitoring in the Maya forest corridor."

"A motorist had informed one of our staff that while driving he think he saw a dead cat a big spotted cat near the road side and the information we got was it was near the mile 25 community, however when we went out we did not find it there and later on we decided to just sweep the highway from near the zoo going out and around 11:30 the night we found it on the road side it was obviously dead."

"While conducting the necropsy we found 2 fetuses so the cat was pregnant we basically lost 3 jaguars in that accident in that road collision and that is a big loss to the jaguar population in Belize."

Poot says there are ways to prevent huge losses such as this and it all begins with a major tweak to Belize's road infrastructure, by making it more wildlife friendly. He says that himself along with other colleagues have participated in road ecology workshops which has helped them to learn more about what works best for these wild animals traveling between the south and north of the Mayan Forest Corridor. He says they have seen that it works already, but better planning and implementation needs to be taken into account.

Celso Poot, Operations Manager, TBZ
"At this exact same site we picked up a tapir in December 2023, the exact same site so what you need to realise is the Maya Forest Corridor is the last piece of forested area on both sides of the George Price Highway when moving between Belize City and Belmopan and it is important because it is a critical link for wildlife moving between the northern and the southern forests in Belize."

"What we need is that mitigation measures are put into place so wildlife friendly infrastructure, especially in this area so that wildlife can move safely."

"So we are recommending at least 2 major underpasses on this piece of the highway along with some secondary underpasses, but two major underpassed, 20 meters wide and 12 meters wide so that different species of animals can cross the highway safely."

"What we noticed with the two underpasses that were put in place on the coastal Plain Highway is that they are only accessible to wildlife during the dry season, during the wet season they are flooded and so wildlife cannot use them. Last April or May we recorded the first jaguar and her cub using one of the underpasses, now when that happened that's a big conservation success because these jaguars teach their cub how to use the landscape so if they train them to use these underpasses as the cubs get older and as they become adult then they begin using these underpasses and can safely cross the road as well."