Some weeks have passed here in Esperanza Verde and the last arrival of animals that Olivia brought from Pucallpa are now thriving and becoming a part of our daily routine. We are happy to have released more animals into the wild, as well as moving recovered animals from the clinic into cages. This leaves space to help new animals arriving in need of medical care and attention. From a tour to Pucallpa, Douwe brought back a young peccary and two tortoises, which the police confiscated from a bus.
Furthermore, life continues in the jungle and everyone enjoys seeing the many free animals around the house living in their natural environment in peace with the people around them.
Monkeys
Chiquita (baby female woolly monkey), Khali & Cinty (baby male and female capuchin monkeys)
The three baby monkeys are doing very well. They are all gaining weight now steadily, playing around with each other. They enjoy being with the older monkeys who are good at taking them along. They are getting more independent and we are now really working to distance them from people. For this reason we try not to have them on us at all anymore. Some of the babies and volunteers are finding it a bit hard though, but in general it is going very well. Especially Chiquita is becoming very independent and hardly seeks human attention which is really great!
Sira (female night-monkey)
Sira is doing great and is really enjoying her playtime with the other baby monkeys in the afternoon. We have been getting her used to one of the free cages at the clinic, and recently she spent her first night there. After having been 3 months at the family house, it was about time. The change was stressful at first for her, but she seems to adapt pretty well. In the afternoon she spends time with the baby monkeys outside and stays with them in the outside cage till about 9pm.
Lupa (baby female woolly monkey)
Lupa still doesn´t seek for human contact which is very good. We moved her out of the clinic into the outside (Roko) cage where she could get used to the monkeys around and sleep with the three other baby monkeys at night. After a week she was released to stay outside with the other monkeys. Willow directly took her on his back and carried her around, but unfortunately he does not always keep a keen eye. On the second night he left her behind at Rincay, the tapir, and she was picked up by Yanay, the female spider monkey. We took her in for some nights, as she did not seem to have eaten a lot and lost weight. Now she is outside again, but seems to have learned and comes to drink milk and takes some food from us. Willow is still claiming her a lot though!
Xira (female young white-fronted capuchin)
After her release in mid-April, Xira, has been doing fine playing around in the trees. However, we started to notice that she was getting very skinny which is why she is now getting milk twice a day to help her gain some weight again.
Other Mammals
Kimsa (female coati)
After her release, Kimsa at first looked better but after a while her eye infection started to get worse. She was not walking around a lot anymore and mostly stayed near the volunteer kitchen. It was therefore decided to bring her back to the clinic to treat her and help her gain strength. Very sadly she gave up after one day in the clinic and left this world. The autopsy showed that the cause of death could have been many… Her eye infection had eaten some of the bone around it and might have also spread into her blood. She also had a lot of parasites in her intestines and even had a little internal bleeding from a fall as it looks like, but we do not know for sure. To make the story even more sad, we also found two small babies inside her which could have been born any day. Kimsa was a fighter but unfortunately very unlucky.
Zambo (young male tayra)
What seemed like a never ending de-worming treatment, it has finally ended. After many weeks Zambo is parasite free! But then the next thing came along, when an observant volunteer found maggots hiding inside his feet. Later on, it turned out that they were in his paws, mouth and under his eye lid. After an intense treatment he is now doing better and we hope no more things will show up. He is very curious, sniffs around a lot and goes out for a walk on a leash outside now. He is a strong and now very happy boy!
Milo & Chula (male and female agouti)
After some time being quarantined in the clinic the two agouties have been put into the reptile enclosure. Chula the juvenile probably jumped over the fence and was shortly outside, but seemed to have jumped back in again. She and Milo have been seen now regularly and seem to do well there. Of course if they decide to and Milo is big enough they will have the change to jump to the big world themselves someday.
Kohana (baby female peccary)
Our new arrival, a three-months old peccary brought by Douwe from the Ministry in Pucallpa, is now staying at the enclosure around the family house together with Ringo (the deer). After some de-worming she is doing very well and is always happy to welcome people to the house. In some weeks we are planning to put her into the cage with Quintisha so they can enjoy each other’s company.
Birds
Parakeets
The 120 Parakeets in Igor cage are still getting ready to fly. Approximately half of them still need some more time to recover and grow back their feathers before we can release them.
Cobalt winged parakeets, Festive Amazon parrots and Blue headed parrot
The cobalt winged parakeets and the festive amazons have been good in the clinic and past their quarantine period. The parakeets have been introduced into Igor cage, and are doing fine. The Festive amazons, Dali and Kipa, are now in the aviary and already after 15 minutes were happily eating together with some of the orange winged amazons.
Furthermore we just had a new arrival, which is a blue headed parrot staying in the clinic now. It was brought by a local boy from Bello Horizonte. Apparently it was caught in his uncles fishing net. It might be a wild one, just a bit in shock, and as soon as it has had its medical check-up, and we are sure it can fly well, we might be able to release it again.
Shakalaka, (speckled chachalaca)
A bit more than a month has pasted since Olivia brought this beautiful bird from Pucallpa. Shakalaka is now good and healthy and has therefore been let out of its cage. She can fly enough to be able to get around and stay out of monkeys’ harm! For two days she has been out under the watchfull eye of a volunteer, but on the 3rd day she did not want to come out. We will see….She is a tame bird, and it will take some time for her to adjust to all these animals living out here as well.
Reptiles
The two yellow footed tortoises, that were at the clinic, have been treated for parasites and have been moved an outside enclosure to spend their quarantine period.
Their place in the clinic was quickly taken again by the two tortoises, Douwe brought from the Ministry together with Kohana, the peccary.
The three legged yellow spotted river turtle has happily moved in with the other turtles in the reptile cage.
Construction
In between a lot dry days, we did have three days with a lot of heavy rain. This resulted in the river rising and the construction workers saw their chance to transport construction material much more efficient than normally as they could take it across the big river up to the small stream leading up to the volunteer kitchen.
Cabin
The material for the spider monkey cage still hasn´t arrived, so instead the construction time has been used to finish the cabin. All the mosquito mesh in the room is finished and we have been digging a big hole outside the cabin for the latrine (septic tank). This is now being build up so it will be ready for the bathroom that is being finalized with tiling.
Volunteers
In the last period we have had to say goodbye to some long time volunteers. Amongst them, Dominik, who had been here for nine months, gave a goodbye party for the total of four volunteers leaving the next day. In this group was also Morgane our head volunteer. We thank her for her hard work here and welcome Lore and Kimberley as our new head volunteers. When people leave new people come, that is how it works here and we are happy to welcome many new motivated volunteers who have already started with helping out.
Thanks to all the volunteers and donations that make all this possible! This little green hope in the jungle is growing bigger and bigger every day and love to watch the changes happening.
Cheers!