Revisiting Hunting in Belize: Part I

We have heard from two more hunters returning from Belize with David Hill's Maya Kingdom Adventures. You'll recall subscriber Dick Fruchy filed a less-than-positive report (Hunt Report ID 8161) this past May on the hunt he experienced with his wife and three adult sons. Hunting Report Editor Barbara Crown has since spoken with two other hunters who tried out the hunting there. One was unsuccessful; the other had better luck. This month, we will offer comments from John Chitwood, who also hunted in April and gave his assessment of the operation in a telephone interview with Editor Barbara Crown. Here is what he had to say: "The good news is that David Hill has reopened Belize for big game hunting, and I am tickled to death that is the case. It's always good when a destination reopens for hunting. That said, I stayed for the entire hunt and never shot anything or saw anything I could shoot. In four and half days, I saw a deer of some variety as it was running away. It was impossible to identify what species or sex it was. Later we saw a spotted whitetail fawn. In the first area, close to the lodge, we found old tracks in the mud, but nothing fresh. In the remote jungle area, about an hour from the lodge, we found some fresh whitetail tracks. There was no fresh peccary sign other than some rooting. I hunted hard, spending 14 hours in the field one day, 11 of those on my feet walking. "According to the guides, I was there at the wrong time of year. April is the dry season, and there is no fruit dropping then. The guides are subsistence hunters who hunt at night. They said that the summer is best for white-lipped peccary. June and July is the rainy season when the bottoms flood and you can walk the ridges and find fresh sign. Brocket deer hunting is best in December during the rut, when the animals are moving and there is food on the ground. But even then I don't think the chances are high. One of the guides showed........(continued)