Community Baboon Sanctuary

To come in contact with the black howler monkey in their natural habitat brings great joy and excitement to those who appreciate and love nature and exotic wildlife. The Community Baboon Sanctuary is where you will find the majority of all the black howler monkeys in Belize. This protected area is located in a small village known as Bermudian Landing, approximately 25 miles west of Belize City along the historic Old Belize River. This area is an incredible success story of people voluntarily coming together for the sole purpose of protecting and preserving one of Earth’s endangered species. Due to an outbreak of yellow fever in Belize in the late 1800's these animals were also affected and died at an alarming rate. They ended up on the endangered species list. In the 1980’s an initiative surfaced from a zoologist from New York to try and save the existing population of the howler monkeys in the country. He thought that by creating a sanctuary for these animals it could help to replenish the rainforest of these magnificent creatures. Eight communities along the old Belize river came together to initiate this program, Landowners allowed their land to be used as habitats for these animals and whenever there is a sighting of the howlers people were asked to just leave them alone and not to bother with them. There were also awareness campaigns to sensitize the people of the community about the objective of the program. It was well received by all involve and today it has paid huge dividends to the people in the areas. The program started with about 800 monkeys and today there is a healthy population of over 3000 howler monkeys in the sanctuary alone.