Sharon Matola obituary

The founder of Belize Zoo and a champion of native species including the tapir and the scarlet macaw

In 1983, after a wildlife film-making project she was working on fell apart, Sharon Matola found herself in Belize, Central America, with a menagerie of homeless native creatures. She scrounged some land, wrote a sign on a piece of wood, and the Belize Zoo was open for business. Suddenly, she became the zoo lady", responsible for housing, feeding, cleaning and maintaining the health of the 20 animals.

The office cat" was a jaguar, and there was a baby tapir in the bedroom on several occasions. It looked chaotic, but Matola, who has died aged 66 of a heart attack, was scrupulous about animal husbandry and determined that Belizeans would have a chance to learn about their tiny nation's biodiversity.

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