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Sharon Matola had a wonderful write up in the Washington Post. RIP, Ma'am.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNLN1MsFc8G/
"At first, Ms. Matola raised and sold chickens and worked as a nature guide to support the animals. She wooed the zoo’s first paying visitors with the help of the staff at a nearby restaurant who sent their customers her way.
She saw it as her mission to share the animals with Belizeans, who had no zoo in their country before Ms. Matola opened hers and, in many cases, had never seen wildlife up close. Schoolchildren began making field trips to the zoo. Those unable to travel were treated to presentations by Ms. Matola, who zipped around the country on her motorcycle with a boa constrictor. She wrote children’s books about a character named Hoodwink the Owl.
Over the years, Ms. Matola increasingly earned the trust and admiration of Belizeans, as well as the ire of some business leaders whose development projects she opposed in order to safeguard the rainforest. One government official, speaking to Smithsonian magazine, compared her to the harpy eagle, which happened to be her favorite animal: 'Once she gets her talons into you, she does not let go.'
She also attracted the attention of environmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and the MacArthur Foundation, which contributed funding for what today is a sanctuary for nearly 190 animals, representing more than 45 species native to Belize, among them the tapir and jaguar, the spider monkey, the coati-mundi, the scarlet macaw, the jabiru stork and two species of crocodile."
