Chiquibul National Park is

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

's largest

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

.Riley, Laura, Riley, William, 2005
''Nature's Strongholds: The World's Great Wildlife Reserves''
Princeton University Press, p. 333, . It is in size. The park is located in Belize's

Cayo District Cayo District is a district located in the west part of Belize. It is the most extensive, second-most populous and third-most densely populated of the six districts of Belize. The district's capital is the town of San Ignacio. Geography Being ...

. The national park surrounds

Caracol Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District, of Belize. It is situated approximately south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau, ...

, a

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

city. Caracol has been designated as an archaeological reserve and is not included within the park's total area.

Chiquibul Forest Reserve The Chiquibul Forest Reserve (CFR) lies within Belize's Greater Mayan Mountains. The Forest Reserve lies adjacent to the Belize-Guatemalan border and as such had been the focus of illegal harvesting of Xate by Guatemalan Xateros. The Chiquibul fores ...

is adjacent to the park.World Database on Protected Areas
/ref>

Establishment of the park

Chiquibul National Park was originally part of Chiquibul Forest Reserve, which was designated in 1956. In 1991, due to lobbying from

conservationists The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental, and social movement that seeks to manage and protect natural resources, including animal, fungus, and plant species as well as their habitat for the f ...

, the three-quarters of the forest reserve that did not have active

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

concessions was re-designated as a national park under Belize's National Parks System Act. The park's borders were re-defined in 1995. Caracol became surrounded by the national park.Chiquibul National Park and Caracol
Belize National Parks, Natural Reserves, & Wildlife Sanctuaries.

Geology and geography

The western side of the park lies along Belize's border with

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. The park lies west of the

Maya Mountains The Maya Mountains are a mountain range located in Belize and eastern Guatemala, in Central America. Etymology The Maya Mountains were known as the ''Cockscomb'' or ''Coxcomb Mountains'' to Baymen and later Belizeans at least until the mid-2 ...

. The park's landscape includes south Vaca Plateau and eastern slopes of the Maya Mountains.

Doyle's Delight Doyle's Delight is the highest peak in Belize at . It lies on the Maya Divide, the main ridge line of the Maya Mountains in southwestern Belize. The name Doyle's Delight was first coined by Sharon Matola in a 1989 report. The name is based on S ...

, the highest mountain in Belize, is located in the park. The park is located on a layer of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

, the largest area of protected

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

in Belize. The park incorporates portions of the

Chiquibul Cave System The Chiquibul Cave System is one of the largest and best-known cave systems in Central America. It consists of four distinct caves along the course of the Chiquibul River; Actun Kabal, Actun Tun Kul (Tunkul) and Cebada Cave in Belize, and Xibalba ...

, the longest known cave system in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. The cave system is made up of caves linked by water flows, including the Chiquibul River. The Chiquibul River flows through Belize, goes underground into the cave system, and resurfaces in Guatemala. The cave system includes the largest known underground passages and cave chamber discovered in the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...

Flora and fauna

The forest has been mostly unbroken since the Maya left it centuries ago. The park has high biodiversity. Species found in the park include

keel-billed motmot The keel-billed motmot (''Electron carinatum'') is a species of bird in the motmot family Momotidae. It is very closely related to the broad-billed motmot, and the two may be the same species. The two are similar sizes and shapes, and have been ...

kinkajou The kinkajou ( /ˈkɪŋkədʒuː/ ''KING-kə-joo''; ''Potos flavus'') is a tropical rainforest mammal of the family Procyonidae related to olingos, coatis, raccoons, and the ringtail and cacomistle. It is the only member of the genus ''Potos'' ...

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

jaguarundi The jaguarundi (''Herpailurus yagouaroundi'') is a wild cat native to the Americas. Its range extends from central Argentina in the south to northern Mexico, through Central and South America east of the Andes. The jaguarundi is a medium-sized ...

king vulture The king vulture (''Sarcoramphus papa'') is a large bird found in Central and South America. It is a member of the New World vulture family Cathartidae. This vulture lives predominantly in tropical lowland forests stretching from southern Mexic ...

margay The margay (''Leopardus wiedii'') is a small wild cat native to Central and South America. A solitary and nocturnal cat, it lives mainly in primary evergreen and deciduous forest. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted illegally for the wildlife ...

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...

ocellated turkey The ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocellata'') is a species of turkey residing primarily in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, as well as in parts of Belize and Guatemala. A relative of the North American wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo''), it was ...

s, Yucatan spider monkeys, and

Baird's tapir The Baird's tapir (''Tapirus bairdii''), also known as the Central American tapir, is a species of tapir native to Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America. It is the largest of the three species of tapir native to the Americas, as ...

s. It has Belize's largest breeding population of

scarlet macaw The scarlet macaw (''Ara macao'') is a large red, yellow, and blue Central and South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws. It is native to humid evergreen forests of the Neotropics. Its range extends from ...

s. New

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

and

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

species have been discovered in the park.Nations, James D., 2006
''The Maya Tropical Forest: People, Parks, & Ancient Cities''
University of Texas Press, p. 246, 247, . The biological diversity of the park has not yet been fully explored. In 1993, a

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

from

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million spe ...

collected more than 130 plant species previously unreported in Belize. Three of these species had never before been reported in

References

External links

Chiquibul National Park
Biodiversity & Environmental Resource Data System of Belize.
Inside Chiquibul: Photographing Central America's Longest Cave
National Geographic.

Biological-Diversity.info. {{authority control National parks of Belize Protected areas established in 1995