TThe Miguel Álvarez del Toro Regional Zoo, better known as "ZooMAT", is a space dedicated to the research, conservation, exhibition and education focused on Chiapas’ fauna. This space has been the cradle of countless conservation efforts, led by the doctor Miguel Álvarez del Toro (1917-1996), a scientist and naturalist from Colima, who arrived in Chiapas in 1942, and together with professor Eliseo Palacios Aguilera, and the support of doctor Rafael Pascacio Gamboa, gave rise to what was then called "Tropical Garden Centers and Natural History Museum". This eventually became the "Natural History Institute" (today Ministry of the Environment and Natural History, SEMAHN), which is home to the ZooMAT, a name that was coined in 1982, when it was moved to its current facilities, in the El Zapotal Ecological and Recreational Center, to the south east of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. El Zapotal is a reserve of about 120 hectares that protects a peculiar Tropical Rainforest made up mainly of various species of Zapotes (Black, Chicozapote, etc.), remains of Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forest, and Nangaño Forest. In this place, you can enjoy typical birds of the region, such as the Russet-crowned Motmots, the Guianan Violaceous Trogons, the Northern Potoos, the Green Jays, and the Mexican Caciques.

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