Scarlet Macaw rescued from the wildlife pet trade. They are highly susceptible to deforestation and poaching.
Sharon Matola (on the right) is describing the story of this crocodile whom the Belize Zoo staff and her staff raised from birth. The croc prefers to be held by humans and scratched on the sensitive skin on its forehead.
As you walk through the entrance of the Belize Zoo, you almost bump your head on the massive tapir skeleton hanging from the ceiling. The entrance hallway beyond is lined with photos of Sharon Matola (Belize Zoo founder and director) exploring the zoo with conservation heroes such as Steve Erwin. You just know that you are about to walk into a place that is profound and special. The hallway opens into a stunning rainforest environment where, as your eyes adjust, two large enclosures built into the forest house two stoic King Vultures and two chatty Scarlet Macaws (separated, of course!). The zoo is quite literally built into the rainforest, being a maze of paths that open into beautiful enclosures. When you get lost on the paths, as I often did, you can watch talkative wild red-lored parrots fly overhead, spot agouti and armadillos scampering on the paths,
and observe a wild hybrid freshwater and saltwater crocodile, who happened to make residence in the zoo one day, basking in the sun. It is as if you are within an enclosure, observing the animals of Belize in their natural habitat. All of the animals at the zoo come from traumatizing backgrounds: victims of the wildlife pet trade, poaching and deforestation. Each one is cherished and cared for by Sharon Matola and the Belize Zoo staff. These animals, having lived a haunting and traumatic past, now live happily rehabilitated in the zoo, serving as education icons for their wild counterparts. Talk to any Belizian and they have been to the zoo within the last 6 months. This is a place where Belizians can observe and learn about the animals that they have only heard about in stories during their childhood. It is a place where an infamous myth about an animal – such as believing a barn owl to be a bad omen – is replaced with admiration and adoration that comes from observing and learning about these animals. It is a place where Belizians can feel a sense of national pride, being able to watch these unique native species and develop intimate connections to them. One such encounter includes feeding a banana to Belize’s national animal, the tapir, who is typically elusive and concealed in the wild. Plus, The Belize Zoo is the first wheelchair-accessible nature destination in Belize, making it truly reachable to any person.
This winter, 18 Cornell students and clinicians traveled to Belize to continue the amazing partnership with Cornell Vet Med, the Belize Zoo, and support from the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation. Cornell now sends a team every six months to provide veterinary care to a diverse array of native Belizian wildlife. Amongst the team this year were Wildlife / Zoo veterinarian and resident Drs. Sara Childs-Sanford and Cindy Hopf with wildlife technician Alice Van DeMark, veterinarian anesthesiologist and resident Drs. Robin Gleed and Katie Zatroch, Dentistry and Oral Surgery veterinarian and resident Drs. Santiago Peralta and Lindsey Schneider accompanied by dental technician Bethany Wright, and two teacher assistants / third year vet students, Zachary Dvornicky-Raymond and myself (William Fugina). Additionally, 8 Cornell veterinary students accompanied the team to assist with procedures and gain an incredible experience.
Here’s vet student’s Mariah Beck (back right), Eric Teplitz (left) and myself ultrasounding the kidneys of a Kinkajou while anesthesia and dentistry residents Drs. Katie Zatroch and Lindsay Schneider are hard at work!
Here are the pharmacy and lab diagnostic counters that we organized to make finding medication and conducting diagnostics more efficient.
Throughout this partnership, the zoo has been adding new equipment and facilities to the clinic, thanks to fundraising and donations from collaborating institutions like Cornell and the BZNC (Belize Zoo Nature Conservancy). This being my second consecutive year at the Belize Zoo, I saw just in a year’s span how much the clinical facility improved. Taking a more administrative role at the zoo this year, I was able to observe the ebb and flow of the new clinic. I felt that the improvements facilitated a strategic and logical flow reminiscent of our animal hospital at Cornell. Additional to the clinical improvements, there is now an organized diagnostic lab where we made fecal and blood smears, cytology, and organized samples for CBC and chemistry panels. This year, we were able to do thorough diagnostic workups for every animal we worked on. This enabled us to make more directed diagnoses and treatment plans for the animals. Finally, there was now an organized pharmacy with a documented inventory, easily accessible for clinicians or zoo staff to establish and prepare treatment protocols. This also enables the zoo and visiting organizations to coordinate on what medications are in short supply, so that visiting groups can replenish and replace medications and supplies. I discuss the improvements in such detail because of how important I felt it was towards enhancing the student’s experience. Whether you were scrubbing in on a jaguar dental surgery, managing anesthesia of a puma, or running diagnostics on toucan blood, there was a job to be done, even for 18 people.
Here I captured the flawless ebb and flow of
procedures done at the zoo. Dr. Schneider (left) is conducting her dental exam on this jaguar while vet student Eric Teplitz scribes the findings as the dental technician. Vet Students Benjamin Jakobek (Middle), Zack Dvornicky-Raymond (middle right) and William (Perry) Koehler (left) observe and listen to Dr. Cindy Hopf teach while ultrasounding the kidneys.
Drs. Schneider (left) and Peralta (right) diagnose tooth root absorption in this jaguar while William Koehler on the left waits patiently to get his hands in on the action as the dental surgery technician. I am gathering on vitals.
The partnership the Belize Zoo has made with Cornell Vet Med truly facilitates a world-class veterinary opportunity for veterinary students, technicians and clinicians. What excited me most about this opportunity was the collaboration amongst veterinary specialties. With our diverse team consisting of anesthesiologists, wildlife veterinarians and dentists, they provided these unique animals with a thorough and specialized form of veterinary care parallel to that of a referral hospital, except in a zoo setting within a developing country. Additionally, these collaborations facilitated new insights and discoveries in veterinary medicine which may have not occurred if not for this partnership.
Here are the dental radiographs from this
jaguar. The blown-up photo on the right shows two teeth with evidence of tooth root
absorption. Extraction was indicated for any
tooth undergoing this process because it’s a
very painful, unmanageable condition.
For example, Cornell’s dental team was working on one of the zoo’s jaguars. After a thorough dental exam including radiographs, they diagnosed tooth resorption, a common idiopathic dental pathology in domestic cats. To their knowledge, this was the first documented case in a jaguar. With the pending histopathologic information on the extracted teeth from this case, this could provide vital information to the idiopathic nature of this disease in domestic cats as well as make this a notable disease to keep on the differential list in dental pathology of large felids. As a student, I see the enormous benefit and need for more veterinary specialty collaborations in conservation. In providing experiences like this to students, it enables us to realize that no matter the specialty or type or veterinary medicine you track, you can still take part in wildlife medicine and conservation. Additionally, this experience reflects the benefits of maintaining successful long term international partnerships, where resources, knowledge and stories are shared amongst newfound friends and colleagues over a few Belikans and many laughs. I look forward to seeing how this partnership transforms in the future, and I am excited to hopefully one day join a future team as a veterinarian.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: William Fugina is a third-year veterinary student at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.