Community Baboon Sanctuary: Fee, Who Runs It and Its Black Howler Monkeys

Verified on 14 November 2026 on the Community Baboon Sanctuary’s own site (its Belize Monkey Adventure Tour, Museum, Our Community and Black Howler Monkeys pages) and the IUCN Red List’s assessment of Alouatta pigra.

The Community Baboon Sanctuary, on Bermudian Landing Road in Bermudian Landing, prices its guided howler monkey walk at “$10 US per person + a $2 museum fee”, lasting 45 minutes to 1 hour with no minimum group size. Its museum page gives a different price: $10.00USD for the museum and a 45-60 minute guided walk together. Both pages were read on 14 November 2026, and neither says which price is current. The animal the sanctuary protects, the Yucatán black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra), is listed by the IUCN Red List as Endangered under criteria A4cd, assessed 02 March 2020.

The tour page prints its $2 museum fee with no currency label, so we give it as printed. Tour operators’ shore-excursion prices that include the sanctuary are on our Belize City cruise port page; those are the operators’ prices, not the sanctuary’s.

Who runs it

The sanctuary’s Our Community page says it “wouldn’t exist without the united efforts of seven Belize River Valley villages”: Flowers Bank, Scotland Half-Moon, Isabella Bank, St. Paul’s Bank, Willows Bank, Double Head Cabbage and Bermudian Landing. It describes “a community-led approach that started in 1985 with the vision of local landowners”, who “signed pledges to protect the howler monkeys’ habitats on their lands”.

• Management: “The Community Baboon Sanctuary Women’s Conservation Group (CBSWCG) is the guiding force of our sanctuary.” The page says the group was founded in 1998 and “is managed by local women from each of our seven villages”, with its headquarters in Bermudian Landing, “the central hub of the community baboon sanctuary”.
• Size: the page prints two area figures: the seven villages are “spread across over 3,000 hectares”, and it counts over 170 landowners taking part “to safeguard over 5,000 hectares of habitat”.
• Museum: the Community Baboon Sanctuary Museum “opened in April 1989 with museum exhibits coordinated by Dr. Robert H. Horwich”. The page names the Lincoln Park Zoological Society, World Wildlife Fund – U.S. and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee County as giving financial support and exhibits, and the Belize Audubon Society administrative support. It says the displays were updated in the summer of 2004, that an Education Center funded by the Protected Areas Conservation Trust opened in 2003, and that a new building “will serve as the welcome center and museum”.

The black howler monkey: what IUCN and the sanctuary say

Why baboon? The sanctuary says: ““Baboon” is the Kriol (creole) word for the black howler monkeys found in Belize.” It explains that African ancestors brought to Belize by the British had known baboons in Africa but never monkeys like these, and the name stuck.

Numbers. The sanctuary’s Black Howler Monkeys page says “The howler monkey population in Belize increased from 450 to 4500 individuals since the Community Baboon Sanctuary’s inception”, with no date or survey named. It also says the species’ population “is projected to decline by 50% over the next three generations due to deforestation, with an estimated 31% of their habitat disappearing by 2048”. Both are the sanctuary’s statements; we read no population figure on the IUCN page.

The law. The same page says: “In Belize, owning a monkey is illegal.” It names no Act. Howler monkeys are also among the animals The Belize Zoo lists on show; see our Belize Zoo page.

What the sanctuary doesn’t publish

On the four sanctuary pages read on 14 November 2026:

• Opening hours or days, beyond “Tours run throughout the day”.
• A distance or drive time from Belize City or the airport.
• Which of its two walk prices is current, or a currency for the $2 museum fee.
• A source for its population figures.

How we researched this

On 14 November 2026 we read four pages on the Community Baboon Sanctuary’s site, howlermonkeybelize.org (the Belize Monkey Adventure Tour page, the Museum page, Our Community and Black Howler Monkeys), and the IUCN Red List species page for Alouatta pigra. We quote both of the sanctuary’s prices as printed and have converted neither.

Sources

• Community Baboon Sanctuary: Belize Monkey Adventure Tour: “$10 US per person + a $2 museum fee”, no minimum, 45 minutes to 1 hour, tours throughout the day, address, phone and email.
• Community Baboon Sanctuary: Museum: $10.00USD for the museum and a 45-60 minute walk, tours arranged at the Visitor’s Center, the April 1989 opening, Dr. Robert H. Horwich, the supporters, the 2004 update, the 2003 Education Center.
• Community Baboon Sanctuary: Our Community: the seven villages, the 1985 pledges, over 3,000 hectares and over 5,000 hectares, over 170 landowners, the Women’s Conservation Group founded in 1998.
• Community Baboon Sanctuary: Black Howler Monkeys: the Kriol name, 450 to 4500, the second monkey species, weight, life span, the call, the decline projection, owning a monkey is illegal.
• IUCN Red List: Alouatta pigra (Yucatán Black Howler Monkey): Endangered, A4cd, ver 3.1, assessed 02 March 2020, published 2020, global scope, decreasing, not severely fragmented, native range.

Last verified: 2026-11-14

Researched and written by Estuardo Enriquez for belizetravelblog.com, an independent site with no connection to any airport, airline, tour operator or government body.