It is very likely that during a walk through the forest you have heard the sound of thousands of cycads singing. Although they are rarely observed because they are mainly found in the treetops (or because some manage to camouflage themselves very well with the color of the barks from the trees) we can hear…
Sacred Flowers Of The Maya
For many years, flowers have been used to represent different meanings. One of the most common traditions that you still observe today is giving flowers as a symbol of affection and romance, especially now that Valentine’s Day is coming… but culturally, flowers have tended a much broader symbolism. In the Mayan culture, for example, the…
“Manzanote” a special cacti from the dry forest
Cacti are perennial plants, very attractive for their strange shapes and spines. Its stems are green, fleshy, simple or branched, with cylindrical, globose, or flattened shapes. They are, generally, terrestrial plants adapted to extreme climates where they can survive long periods without water. They can be herbs, shrubby or arborescent, fleshy or even hard and…
FLAAR Mesoamerica team at Reserva Natural Tapon Creek
Here is the FLAAR Mesoamerica team at Reserva Natural Tapon Creek, capably managed by FUNDAECO. Park ranger Lucus Cuz (of FUNDAECO) is at far right (his son is in the middle). Each individual of the FLAAR Mesoamerica team is specialized in different tasks during these field trips. Their capabilities are listed in the reports in…
Celebrate the biggest feline of America
The Jaguar (Panthera onca) is one of the most frequently encountered images in Mesoamerican art and iconography, in either naturalistic, stylized, or anthropomorphic form. Art is one of the ways in which people represent how they conceive of themselves, and their place in the world The appearance and frequency of jaguar motifs, as with any…
Maize: The most important crop for The Mayan Culture
It is estimated that, in Mesoamerica, agriculture could have occurred 9,000 or 10,000 years ago, approximately. This area, which covers the southern half of Mexico and part of Central America, has been considered one of the most important centers of plant domestication in the world due to the coexistence of extraordinary plant diversity and a…
A Place Called Mesoamerica
Do you ever wonder, what does Mesoamerica mean? This name appears in the history books we read at school, but the discussion and research about the breadth of its territory and culture needs to be explored even more. The word “Mesoamerica” has a Greek origin for the prefix “meso” which means “between something” or in…
Mysterious endangered cave
We were called by a team of biologists who have been studying the importance of an unknown cave located in Izabal, Guatemala. They are worried about the fate of the natural ecosystem that lives inside the darkness of the cave since it has been polluted and neglected by the local people living close to it.…
Tropical bird sanctuary in the Guatemalan caribbean
With their clean feathers, their unique sound, the birds that live on the Livingston shores gave us an unintended spectacle during the sunset. Pelicans, seagulls, egrets (Ardea alba, Egretta thula), cormorants, kingbirds, were some of the birds we could identify flying through the Río Dulce tall canyon, in Livingston. We saw many birds interact, including…
“El Niño Dormido” a unique species in the world
Guatemala and its multiple ecosystems hide a wide variety of flora and fauna. In one of the most particular landscapes, the dry tropical forest, the country’s “desert”, hidden in caves lives one of the biggest reptiles of Central America. Surrounded by trees, cactus, and folktales the Heloderma claims for protection and recognition because of its…