Yesterday, we showed you "Anri" the jaguar, injured after his capture in Lemonal. Since Anri now has a broken canine, it is unlikely that he will be released into the wild. So does that mean he will end up at the Zoo? There's a good chance since the Zoo's Human Jaguar Conflict program has saved the lives of 30 jaguars.
Currently, there are about 4 jaguars at the zoo. Yesterday, we got to meet two of them who were causing chaos in Pine Hill, and had to be rehabilitated. Today, they've settled into their enclosures, where they can eat all the bite sized chickens they want.
But is this what Anri's future will look like? And why wasn't the Zoo a part of his recapture? Courtney Menzies spoke to the director and has this story.
Before 2003, it is estimated that about 50 jaguars were being killed annually in Belize. These were jaguars who had made their way to populated areas and were killing pets and livestock. Then in 2003, the founder of the Zoo, Sharon Matola, proposed a solution.
Celso Poot, Director, The Belize Zoo
"The idea was to identify those cats that were causing conflict and assess their health and if they were not fit to be in the wild then house them at the zoo for the rest of their life, so make the zoo their forever home and over the years we have rescued about 30 jaguars from the wild."
"What we find out is that most of those cats were male jaguars, so male jaguars disperse much farther than females. A male jaguar on the lower end requires about 160 kilometers squared for home range but that can go as high as 500 square kilometers home range so male jaguars require much more space than females."
That's how these two jaguars - Edgar Hill and Ben ended up at the zoo. They're both from Pine Hill, but Edgar came in 2013 after they realized that he had glaucoma, which is why today he only has one eye. Ben had been hunted and was found with bullet fragments in his body back in 2021.
Today both of them are healthy and thriving - living past what their life expectancy would have been in the wild.
And Anri - the conflict cat in Lemonal - was also picked up as part of this program.
Celso Poot, Director, The Belize Zoo
"Anri came on our radar back in April 2025. They reached out to us and we referred them to the Forest Department. Along with the Forest Department staff, our staff went out and we set up some trail cameras to identify the culprit. In May the incidents increased and then in August we worked together to remove the cat we know as Anri from the area known as ANRI in the Stann Creek District. So that cat was trapped and brought here to the zoo for a health assessment. It was incorporated into the Forest Department jaguar program. It was fitted with a collar and released. We have not had contact or involvement with the jaguar since."
The Zoo was not a part of Anri's relocation, but as a male, he would have needed to be placed at least 500 sq kilometers away from where humans are living. However, Poot says that with the advancement in technology, the jaguar should have been able to be monitored as it was nearing the village:
Celso Poot, Director, The Belize Zoo
"GPS telemetry you now have geofence where you can tell where your animal is and if your animal comes near a community, it pings you a message and tells you, hey, your jaguar, your puma, is going near the community, that is where awareness gets into play, you send out your education team, you make them alert the communities that a jaguar may be in this area, make sure you have your livestock locked up, make sure your chickens, you dogs, are safe. So there is technology so what I know the Forest Department was doing was assessing how releasing some of these cats back into prime habitat area would work."
But Anri will likely not be re-released into the wild. And up until yesterday evening, the Zoo was concerned about where he was being kept - especially since they had spent years developing the facilities needed to tend to conflict cats.
Celso Poot, Director, The Belize Zoo
"Over the years we've learned a lot about jaguar behavior. We've also improved our capacity here at the zoo. We've also invested heavily in facility to house these jaguars. The visit we just had to the back show our centralized holding area where the jaguars are kept, it's safe for people, it's safe for the animals, and it serves as a holding area in the event these cats can be released back as well. It's away from the staff, only the zookeeper who works with them actually has access to them. The concern is from the video we saw, Anri has a broken canine and with a broken canine, hunting might be a problem for that cat."
And Anri isn't the only jaguar the Zoo has not been able to assist with - Poot told us that without an MOU with the government, they've been unable to conduct their work since last year.
Celso Poot, Director, The Belize Zoo
"Our challenge right now is that we don't have an official MOU with the Forest Department to work with conflict animals. We had a letter back in 2003 and we have been acting on that letter basically to assist the Forest Department with these situations. Since August, we haven't been able to go out and work with the public who has reached out to us and asked us for help with conflict situations. We're currently waiting for an MOU from the Forest Department."
