Bermudian Landing in Belize is the place to go to photograph black howler monkeys. They are very tame and live around the small village. The villagers look after the monkeys and the area benefits from ecotourism. The headquarters of the Community Baboon Sanctuary, is on the left hand side as you drive through the village and can't be missed. Here you pay a small fee and a guide takes you to see the monkeys. Not that you have to go far. There are usually some within a few hundred metres.
Photographically it is very difficult as the monkeys are in the high canopy of the rainforest and you are looking against the light at a totally black mammal. We had two sessions with them and I guess if we had persisted eventually would have got one out into good light. As it was we only got pictures by working with flash.
The guides are adapt at getting the monkeys to come lower, but they can't get them to move long distance into better lit trees.
The site is within an hours drive of Belize's international airport and makes a good start to a trip to the country. There are several places to stay in the village.
Nearby Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary offered a small amount of car window bird photography and also had accommodation on site. We did vermilion flycatcher, tropical mockingbird, northern jacana and spotted sandpiper here.
The other place to photograph in Belize is the famous zoo. The animals were initially gathered together for a film on the wildlife of Belize. When completed a zoo was created to house the animals. Many of the cages are very suited to photography as they are full of natural vegetation. However light is a problem as it tends to be very dark. Margay, Ocelot, Jaguarundi, Central American Spider Monkeys, White Lipped Coatimundi, Grisons, Racoons, Toucans are amongst the species you can photograph here. To do so you need access to the cages and that costs $100 USD a day plus $10 an hour for the keepers time. This was between two of us.
The zoo also has accommodation at 40 USD a double room. We spent 4 nights there, but only photographed for 2 as it rained a lot.
We visited other sites in Belize, but did not find it an easy country for photography. Better birdwatching than photography.
Photographically it is very difficult as the monkeys are in the high canopy of the rainforest and you are looking against the light at a totally black mammal. We had two sessions with them and I guess if we had persisted eventually would have got one out into good light. As it was we only got pictures by working with flash.
The guides are adapt at getting the monkeys to come lower, but they can't get them to move long distance into better lit trees.
The site is within an hours drive of Belize's international airport and makes a good start to a trip to the country. There are several places to stay in the village.
Nearby Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary offered a small amount of car window bird photography and also had accommodation on site. We did vermilion flycatcher, tropical mockingbird, northern jacana and spotted sandpiper here.
The other place to photograph in Belize is the famous zoo. The animals were initially gathered together for a film on the wildlife of Belize. When completed a zoo was created to house the animals. Many of the cages are very suited to photography as they are full of natural vegetation. However light is a problem as it tends to be very dark. Margay, Ocelot, Jaguarundi, Central American Spider Monkeys, White Lipped Coatimundi, Grisons, Racoons, Toucans are amongst the species you can photograph here. To do so you need access to the cages and that costs $100 USD a day plus $10 an hour for the keepers time. This was between two of us.
The zoo also has accommodation at 40 USD a double room. We spent 4 nights there, but only photographed for 2 as it rained a lot.
We visited other sites in Belize, but did not find it an easy country for photography. Better birdwatching than photography.
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Belize
December 3rd to 18th 2005
December 3rd to 18th 2005
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Vermillion flycatcher
Jaguarundi
Central American
Spider monkey
Spider monkey
Margay
Black-howler
monkey
monkey