All activities / Wildlife Safaris / Cockscomb Basin
Wildlife Safaris in Cockscomb Basin
The world's first jaguar preserve, a reserve of more than 100,000 acres of tropical forest in the Maya Mountains of southern Belize, entered through the Maya village of Maya Centre. It holds the country's densest jaguar population, along with pumas, ocelots, tapirs and howler monkeys.
Why here
Cockscomb Basin was set aside in 1990 as the world's first reserve created specifically to protect jaguars, and it still holds the densest jaguar population in Belize, with camera studies documenting more than a hundred individual cats. You are very unlikely to see a jaguar, since they are shy and nocturnal, but the forest is full of what they hunt and live alongside: red brocket deer, peccary, Baird's tapir, ocelot, puma and troops of black howler monkeys whose dawn roaring carries for miles. A network of marked trails runs from the Maya Centre entrance to jungle waterfalls and swimming holes on South Stann Creek, and the fittest can take the multi-day climb to Victoria Peak, the country's second-highest summit. It is the easiest place in Belize to walk into serious rainforest for a day.
Best months
Trails range from short loops to the strenuous Victoria Peak trek, and most visitors come for a half or full day of hiking and river swimming. The dry season from February to May gives the surest footing; the forest is wettest from June to November. Bring insect repellent and expect heat and humidity. A park fee is paid at the Maya Centre entrance.
Getting there & around
The sanctuary entrance is at Maya Centre village on the Southern Highway, about 30 minutes from Hopkins and an hour from Placencia or Dangriga. From the gate it is a further six miles of dirt road to the trailheads and visitor centre, so most people come on a guided day trip with transport, though rustic cabins inside allow an overnight stay. Park fees are paid at Maya Centre.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate
Schools & guides (2)
Belize Audubon Society
ClubThe Belize Audubon Society is the country's oldest conservation NGO, founded in 1969 and independent since 1973, and it co-manages seven of Belize's protected areas. Among them is Cockscomb Basin, which the Society helped establish in 1990 as the world's first jaguar preserve and still runs day to day. It collects the park fee at the Maya Centre gate, maintains the trail network and visitor centre, and can arrange guided birding and wildlife walks inside the sanctuary.
Untame Belize
OutfitterUntame Belize is a Belizean-owned tour operator based in Hopkins, about fifteen minutes from the Cockscomb turn-off, running private guided day trips into the jaguar preserve. Its Cockscomb tour bundles the park fee, a private naturalist guide, round-trip transport and lunch, and combines marked rainforest hikes to the waterfalls with tubing on South Stann Creek through the reserve. Guides lead small groups and focus on the forest ecology and the sanctuary's conservation story.