This week, we will be discussing an animal that you have probably seen in pictures of rainforests, at your local zoo, or on the side of a Fruit Loops box. This brightly colored bird is known for its prominent beak. Alex speaks with expert Mathieu Charette from the Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society, who’s going to help us learn that there’s much more than meets the eye with this animal. So, join us as we glide to the canopy of the Amazon Rainforest to talk about toucans.
“Toucans are fantastic seed dispersers and that is really their main ecological function that we can see.” – Mathieu Charette
About Our Guest: Mathieu Charette
Mathieu has always been passionate about nature since a young age and turned this passion into a career. He has a B.Sc. in Wildlife Biology from McGill University, an M.Sc. in Biology from the University of New Brunswick, and he has been working as a dedicated conservation biologist for over two decades. He specializes in birds (ornithology) and has been working as a Tropical Ecology Biologist for the last 13 years since he first started working on Toucans. He is currently the director of the Toucan Ridge Bird Observatory (TRBO) at the Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society (TREES) in Belize. He is currently researching how to better understand the biology of resident birds in Belize including 3 species of Toucans. He is a strong believer in conservation through education and educating communities on how we share our planet with a myriad of incredible species.
Organizations
Sources
- Toco Toucans by National Geographic
- Toucans and Toucanettes— Feeding
- Breeding
- Toucan by Animal Network
- Toco Toucans by Animals World
- Species
- Ramphastos Toco
- Manduvi Tree Toucan
- Conservation puzzle: Endangered hyacinth macaw depends on its nest predator for reproduction
- Toco Toucan by Seaworld
- Toucans by BirdLife International
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