Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary - Geography

Geography

The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is actually comprised by two adjacent geographic basins. The West Basin is drained by the Swasey Branch, which is one of the main tributaries to the Monkey River. The East Basin consists of the upper watershed of South Stann Creek. The West Basin, being more difficult to access given distance from trailheads and higher forest density, is as of the current time still relatively unexplored from the standpoint of species mapping, Mayan ruins and other environmental details.

The reserve is generally lozenge shaped spanning an east west dimension of approximately 36 kilometres and a north south dimension of approximately 14 kilometres. Elevation extremes are 50 metres above sea level in the lower reaches of South Stann Creek to 1160 metres atop Victoria Peak.

The West Basin is bounded by the ridge of the Maya Mountains on the west, Cockscomb Mountains on the north, a prominent transverse ridge of the Maya Mountains at the south (of about elevation 1000 m) and a low lying north-south ridge at the east, which separates the West from East Basin. The Swasey Branch exits through the south transverse range via a deep 300 metre gorge. The East Basin is also bounded on the north by the namesake Cockscomb ridge, to the west by the low lying north south ridge separating the two basins, to the east by Cabbage Haul Ridge and to the south by Stann Creek Ridge. South Stann Creek flows out of the East Basin on the south in a meandering gentle gradient that was easily navigated by the British explorers in the 1880s.