SUNY Cortland News

    Sharon Matola, director of the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center and an internationally renowned conservation biologist, will discuss her current animal and habitat preservation efforts on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at SUNY Cortland.
    Matola's talk, titled "Feathers and Fungi: The Importance of Saving Tropical Nature," begins at 7 p.m. in Bowers Hall, Room 109. The lecture is free and open to the public.
    A native of Baltimore, Md., Matola grew up having little direct experience with nature but an early interest in animals. After serving in the U.S. Air Force and performing as a lion tamer in a Mexican circus, she came to Belize, the former British Honduras in Central America, in 1982. She took a temporary job as a film assistant to documentary filmmaker Richard Foster, who needed someone to manage the small collection of wild animals he used for his wildlife films.
    When filmmaking ended, there were no funds to support the animals while Foster went to Borneo to complete another documentary there. Left in charge but with instructions from the United Kingdom parent film company to "get rid of the animals," Matola decided to use the creatures to start Belize's first modest zoo.
    The zoo was an immediate hit because most residents of Belize knew very little about the country's flora and fauna. Myths about wildlife abounded. Over the past two decades, the zoo has become world-famous, in particular, for its focus on the restoration of the Harpy eagle species, the Central American Scarlet macaw, and jaguar habitat restoration. Matola is known for her work with the Scarlet macaw and tapirs.
    Matola has been a vocal advocate for species and habitat preservation. She battled against the Belize government and a multinational energy conglomerate to prevent the construction of the Chalillo Project Dam. She rallied many eco-celebrities to her side, including Harrison Ford, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the late Steve Irwin, a.k.a., the Crocodile Hunter, but ultimately lost her effort. The dam now floods 2,800 acres of pristine tropical forest on the banks of the 12-mile Macal River and its six-mile tributary, the Aspaculo. The hydroelectric project has submerged a riparian habitat that once supported Scarlet macaws, jaguars, Baird's tapirs, ocelots and spider monkeys.     
    The presentation is sponsored by the offices of the President, Provost, Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Cortland College Foundation, International Programs, Campus Artist and Lecture Series and Biology Club. For more information, contact Professor of Biological Sciences Timothy Baroni at (607) 753-2725.