By Dr. Marisa Tellez | Executive Director and Founder
As the rainy season continues, our research surveys have depended on Mother Nature. We luckily have been able to do some surveys (12 in total) in southern Belize, where we have collected tissue samples of crocs for future heavy metal analysis. CRC staff is currently prepping to send samples off to our collaborators in the United States for heavy metal analysis.
The research surveys we have conducted the last few months have been in southern Belize given the hurricanes and weather we have experienced this season. We decided given weather it’s best to concentrate research efforts close to home, expanding to other areas in Belize come dry season (which starts in January). So far, we have found very healthy crocs, especially yearlings and juveniles. In fact, we have found quite a few chunky croc babies in various areas, which is a great sign of water quality and a healthy environment. However, we do understand there still may be some underlying water quality issues, so we of course took samples for future analysis.
Tagging along with us in many of our research efforts was our wildlife youth group, Next Gen Croc. Next Gen Croc currently consists of 13 young girls that range from the age of 9-15. These young scientists have come out with us into the field, recording data, learning how to measure crocs, and much more! Taking our students out for research has been an excellent experience in fostering the next generation of conservation scientists and leaders!
Thank you to all who have donated towards our project through GlobalGiving. As the dry season comes, our next report will have more details given we will be able to conduct more research surveys. Additionally, some of our samples will have been analyzed so in the next several months we should have some information about what pollutants crocodiles are being exposed to in their ecosystem. We are very grateful to all of those that have donated and are willing to help us maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems in Belize. Our work is currently considered a model project by various wildlife researchers and ecotoxicologists given our results from previous years. Thank you all so much for sinking your teeth into conservation with the CRC and Belize!
Dr. Marisa Tellez and the CRC team
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