Casa Semilla de la Suerte

29/03/2024

What does your “Good Friday”coffee spot look like?

30/01/2024

25/01/2024

Yum!

18/01/2024

The beach

14/01/2024

Beach baby

12/01/2024

Windy morning!

12/01/2024

Another gorgeous day

11/01/2024

Meet Spiky and Bruno

11/01/2024

Beautiful day ❤️

10/01/2024

Sandy toes! ❤️

09/01/2024

https://gofund.me/9d6db1c1

Hi, my name is Tracy and I’m a frequent visitor to San Pedro, Belize. T… Tracy Howard needs your support for San Pedro Iguana Sanctuary, Help The Family Move

28/08/2023

Time to go back….

28/08/2023

Sea is so still today!

25/08/2023

Lunch time!

24/08/2023

Summer project complete!

23/08/2023

This summer we have undertaken an island-wide American crocodile population and nesting site survey across Ambergris Caye. This was no small feat, going out multiple nights a week over the past 3 months for many hours by boat or cart slowly and methodically looking for the distinctive and unmistakable reflection of a crocodile eye lurking in the water or tucked away in the mangrove.

So why have we been surveying the population and the few remaining nesting sites?

American crocodiles are the only crocodilian species established on Ambergris Caye. They are considered vulnerable to extinction and their survival into the future is no guarantee, especially given the extraordinary rate of habitat loss we're seeing across Ambergris Caye. As a keystone species and the apex predators of their ecological community, they play a vital role in balancing the complex ecosystems of the island, the mangroves, lagoons, and by extension, the reef!

So far we've covered almost 200km of Ambergris waters and our surveys back up much of what we expected to find - a struggling population but with an obvious trend of areas where there is a highly dense and unusual number of crocodiles, all in waters immediately adjacent to highly developed neighborhoods contributing to the misnomer that they're overpopulated when they are in fact struggling.

So why is a shy fish-eating species found in higher numbers closer to people?

Crocodiles need 3 primary things to survive. Food to eat. Water deep enough to hide from the heat of the sun. And land to bask on to get dry and warm. In these developed areas, crocodiles have the best of all 3. The deeper waters and thick mangroves provide shelter from the heat of the day. There's easily accessible food from fishing scraps, garbage, and unprotected pets. And mangrove wetlands have been filled in creating high and dry ground to bask on. Finding high and dry ground on Ambergris that hasn’t been developed yet can be a difficult task even if you are a crocodile trying to avoid people as best you can.

These areas can give a false impression at first of crocodiles as being "overpopulated pests" or bring up the question of if they are becoming so endangered, then why are there so many around? But the reality is as you move away from these densely developed areas, the story is much different. We covered vast amounts of the island where crocs were few and far between and huge areas where we didn't see a single crocodile. Granted, while there were many areas where the lack of crocodiles was puzzling, not all the habitat we've surveyed is suitable for anything more than a croc passing through due to the waters not being deep enough for comfort or not having easy access to land.

We have a lot of data to go over and questions still yet to be answered, but there are three key aspects we can look at to minimize crocodile-human conflict.

1: Remove the food source: Discard fishing scraps away from homes, stop throwing dinner scraps in the water, and clean up the piles of garbage that plague much of the lagoon's shorelines. Garbage piles tend to have food in them which attracts crocs, it also attracts rats and raccoons which also attracts crocs. Food is their key motivator and the desire for an easy meal can override the instinct to keep their distance from us.

2: Put up fencing: Any land adjacent to the water is a suitable basking spot. If you don't want to share your space with crocs then there needs to be some sort of fencing. It doesn't have to be concrete or tall chain-link, any barrier will do to put something between your space and the wild and it will keep your pets safe too.

3: Fight for the island!! It is being destroyed at an astronomical rate and the increase in habitat loss will increase human-wildlife conflict in all forms.

23/08/2023

Afternoon snack!

21/08/2023

Afternoon treat 🥰

15/08/2023

Beautiful lunch view

14/08/2023

Lazy beach day

12/08/2023

Beautiful morning

11/08/2023

Lazy afternoon

11/08/2023

My dragonfruit is blooming!

11/08/2023

A few more pictures from our sailing trip

10/08/2023

Mikes Mahi Mahi! 45 pounds or so! 😳

10/08/2023

Sailing