Chankanaab's Wildlife, Onshore and Off

My first encounter with wildlife at Chankanaab in Cozumel was with two live macaws perched on display just past the entrance to the sea lion show. I didn’t bother identifying the exact species; the birds weren’t native to the island anyway. In fact, no wild macaws call Cozumel home. Nor do the California sea lions that performed twice that day. Still, despite the imported attractions, I encountered plenty of native wildlife during my visit to Chankanaab Beach Adventure Park off the Regal Princess cruise ship.

Cozumel is best known for its reefs, and Chankanaab offers easy access to one just offshore. There was little sandy beach, but several ladders and platforms provided snorkelers with safe entry points into the sea from the limestone shoreline. Choosing where to enter was simple — I avoided the spots clogged with sargassum, the free-floating brown seaweed that gathered in thick mats along parts of the shoreline.

In the balmy water, I swam past curious chubs and into a dense school of thousands of sardine-sized fish that parted and re-formed around me. Beyond them, divers from the shore-based dive school hovered over the reef. I searched for three submerged statues — el Cristo, la Virgen, and el Chacmol — but managed to find only the Virgen.

Cloud cover muted the visibility, yet the reef’s colors still shone through. Bright hard corals and swaying sea fans dotted the seascape. I paused above pairs of whitespot filefish and French angelfish while at least three varieties of parrotfish scraped and munched on coral. In the hazy distance, an ocean triggerfish glided by, its dorsal and pectoral fins extended like sails.

The “baby barracudas” the beach attendants had warned me about turned out to be large, flat needlefish. They hovered nearby as I admired a striking elk coral formation close to shore.

Back on land, photographing birds proved far easier than capturing marine life. The park recreates Mayan archaeological structures within a preserved forest landscape — ideal habitat for birds. As I explored, I identified seven species of warblers: yellow-throated, black-and-white, palm, Cape May, American redstart, ovenbird, and either a female Wilson’s or hooded. Great-tailed grackles dominated the grounds, but closer inspection revealed that some of those glossy black birds were new to me — black catbirds.

Around the saltwater lagoon, at least a dozen green and spiny-tailed iguanas basked, many perched in trees. Several of the male green iguanas gleamed bright orange, a seasonal transformation I was fortunate to witness. Tropical mockingbirds and bananaquits were expected sightings, but a noisy pair of Yucatán woodpeckers may have been a first for me.

Near the shoreline, terns and brown pelicans lingered close to bottlenose dolphin and manatee enclosures, where visitors could swim with the animals for an additional fee beyond the twenty-nine-dollar park admission. I hoped those marine mammals were rescues unable to survive in the wild. Otherwise, the barrier separating them from the sea acted more like a prison wall.

Although I didn’t encounter any of the island’s mammals — no coatis or raccoons appeared along the jungle pathways — the park still offered a front-row seat to much of Cozumel’s wildlife. Perhaps its proximity, just three miles from the busy cruise port with its crowded jewelry shops and loud cantinas, keeps some of those critters away. Even so, the island’s natural richness was unmistakable.