Bruce Cullerton (deceased)
In a bizarre twist of fate, and to date the only fatality related to Hurricane Richard, was the death of American Ex-pat Bruce Cullerton when sometime on Monday a contained jaguar escaped from his hurricane damaged enclosure and lethally mauled Cullerton.
The grim accident took place near the Belize Zoo on the Western Highway after the area took a direct hit from the hurricane Sunday night. Professional wildlife photographers and owners of the animal compound where the jaguar was contained, Richard and Carol Foster, reported that their property had sustained a lot of damage and that the jaguar had escaped. Reports speculate that their neighbor Cullerton may have been trying to rescue his dog from the jaguar attack when he lost his life.
Tuesday afternoon news reports were rampant about the attack and Belize Wildlife Department (BFD) Officials, along with law enforcement, Belize Zoo personnel and local animal experts descended on the area to determine their next move. In a phone interview with Wildlife Officer Rasheda Sampson, Sampson told The SPSUN that last night a team of highly trained animal experts, including the BFD, set up a series of snare traps with sensors along the Foster and Cullerton’s property. At approximately 9:30pm they successfully snared the animal within feet of its home enclosure and after positive identification the jaguar was euthanized.
For the complete story read The San Pedro Sun tomorrow.
The croc, which had been in captivity for an estimated three weeks, was literally chained and locked to a nearby coconut tree where it lay in the surf of the Corozal Bay. Surrounded in seaweed and garbage, and eaten by sand fleas, the creature had been tormented for weeks by onlookers who managed to poke both its eyes out, shoot it in the head, pull out most of its teeth and was left to slowly die.
Close to starvation and dehydrated from the lack of fresh water the animal demonstrated little resistance when the team proceed with their rescue. With no key to unlock the chained creature, measures were taken to break open the lock.
On initial examination it was confirmed that the male croc was a freshwater Morelet’s Crocodile. It was speculated that it came from one of the two nearby rivers that empty into the bay. The animal was most likely looking for food in the bay area when it was captured and because it is essentially a fresh water animal the salinity of the bay water was an added hardship for the animal to endure while held captive on the beach.
Once the croc was contained it was loaded into a large PVC culvert which was secured onto the flatbed of the ACES truck. The animal was then hosed down with fresh water to assure its comfort while traveling. Although it was uncertain if the animal would survive the drive back to Punta Gorda the ACES team decided, based on the survival stamina of crocodiles in general, that it was worth a try.
Close to seven hours later they arrived in the dark to the ACES compound in Punta Gorda where the croc was unloaded into a solitary holding pen. Although blind and dazed the animal quickly moved into the fresh water pool where a chicken meal, fortified with vitamins and minerals was left in hopes that he would eat.
On Friday the croc did not visibly show increased signs of stress but his injuries (especially the exit wound from where he was shot) continued to fester. With the chicken meal untouched, it was decided that if he did not eat in the next 24 hours they would have to resort to force feeding the animal.
Based on research from previous rescues of injured crocs the ACES team has found that after a couple of forced meals the animal usually starts to eat again. If this croc, which was named Ripley after a recent donor to the ACES facility, does not start eating after the forced-feeding regiment the team, with permission from the Belize Forest Department, may decide to euthanize the animal.
Two species of crocodiles reside in Belize, the American Crocodile and Morelet's, and both are currently listed as endangered under the United States Endangered Species Act and are also considered threatened by the Coastal Zone Management Program, Department of Fisheries, and the Government of Belize due to a number of threats.