Regardless of the season, Yucatan Peninsula’s wild areas name nature lovers to catch a glimpse of households of spider monkeys and coatimundis within the jungle, crocodiles and manatees within the wetlands, and a wealth of colourful fowl species. Thomas Extra Journey gives eco excursions to the biosphere reserves of Sian Ka’an, Contoy and Rio Lagartos.
Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve
Straddling northern and central Quintana Roo, this UNESCO World Heritage Website contains 1.3 million acres of tropical forest, mangroves, Caribbean seashores and a 110-kilometer-stretch of coral reef. The biosphere reserve was established by authorities decree in 1986 to guard these fragile ecosystems.
Sian Ka’an is dwelling to 103 totally different mammals together with the jaguar, puma, ocelot, peccary, tapir, howler and spider monkeys, and the West Indian manatee. It has certainly one of Mexico’s largest crocodile populations and is a vital nesting space for sea turtles.
The reserve can also be dwelling to over 350 species of fowl, and you’re sure to notch up a good tally of sightings throughout a go to. Sixteen types of heron and egret – together with the kuka or boat-billed heron, tiger, blue and inexperienced heron –will be seen within the mangroves, together with wooden storks, ibis and roseate spoonbills. Flamingos are occasional guests to the coastal lagoons. Migrant warblers, finches and hawks be a part of yr-spherical forest dwellers akin to parrots, motmots and keel-billed toucans. The reserve additionally has a big breeding inhabitants of ospreys and protects a tiny colony of the uncommon jabiru stork, the biggest fowl within the Americas, within the wetlands.
Contoy
A two-hour boat trip to the north of Cancun, the tiny desert island of Contoy is called la isla de los pajaros or “the island of the birds and with good cause. A protected space since 1961, and declared a nationwide park in 1998, it’s a refuge for 150 species of native and migrant birds, together with one of many largest populations of brown pelicans within the Caribbean. Colonies of frigate birds, double crested cormorants and ten members of the heron household akin to the nice blue heron, snowy egret and the yellow-topped evening heron roost within the mangroves. In the course of the winter months, the island is a refuge for migratory geese, plovers, sandpipers, oystercatchers and different shore birds.
Rio Lagartos Biosphere Reserve
First cease through the fall for water and meals for a lot of exhausted migrant birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico, Ría Lagartos Reserve protects 60,348 hectares of mangroves, salt marshes, dunes and tropical forest that’s dwelling to jaguars, monkeys, crocodiles and 365 fowl species, together with hundreds of Caribbean flamingos, North America’s largest nesting colony of those elegant birds.
There are such a lot of flamingos that they paint the horizon pink within the lagoons and salt flats. Fishermen from the waterfront village of Río Lagartos provide boat journeys alongside the ria or estuary and thru the mangroves to the flamingo feeding grounds. Along with the spectacle of watching flamingos taking wing, coming into land or feeding within the shallows, preserve a lookout for flocks of white pelicans, skimmers, limpkins, plovers, reddish and snowy egrets, roseate spoonbills, peregrine falcons and kingfishers.
Thomas More Travel can assist you arrange journeys to those locations and plenty of extra within the Mexican Caribbean and Yucatan.
