As always it has been a very busy three weeks here at Esperanza Verde.

We had a visit from the Swedish Universeum, a public science centre and museum in Gothenburg, who were given a tour by Douwe. At the end they surprised us with a 1000 dollar donation, THANK YOU!
The hatch of Igor cage was opened for the release of a group of parakeets, the kinkajous were released again and the managers-family got a new family member – the baby dog Tara.

Enrico, ‘our’ Italian painter, has been back for 10 days painting amazingly once again – the bathroom door of the kitchen is now a real handicraft!
The volunteers also have had a great time besides work with another trip to the waterfall Regalia and an awesome night walk as well as a bonfire for celebrating a birthday!

Monkeys

Mica and Jordi (female and male capuchin monkey)
Mica is now one of the oldest female capuchin monkeys, but is still up for fun! – She managed to steal a T-shirt and happily put it on; she can spend hours with that on Sira’s (the night-monkey) cage. Also the male capuchin monkey, Jordi has come back to Esperanza Verde, after an apparent disappearance of 2 days!

Saddleback tamarins (wild group)

The new tamarin baby is growing and doing well- it was seen eating fruit from its mother’s hand.

Baby monkeys (woolly monkey´s: Pashko, Samara, Chiquita, Lupa; capuchin monkeys: Cinty, Khali, Axira, night monkey: Sira)
The woolly and capuchin baby monkeys as well as the night monkey Sira, are growing and recently are not being handfed anymore; Sira was removed from milk while the others still get their milk in the morning and afternoon which they drink thirstily.

Squirrel monkeys
Camila finally seems to have enjoyed her male company and got pregnant! The baby may be due in January.

Spider monkeys (males Rimaq and Lucio, female Yanay)
The wound on Rimaq’s foot is slowly healing. The female, Yanay, who was freely living at Esperanza Verde now joined the two males for about a month, as she seems to have periods of being in heat. She is still a bit scared of the males but she knows them from before, so let’s see how if they can find love together!

Other Mammals

Baby collared peccary (male Timo)

Timo is growing fast and still enjoys his milk bottle. He is not sleeping in the house anymore, but remains outside and sleeps next to the young dear, Ringo. He really likes the company of the new family member, the baby dog Tara.

Coatis (adult male Rucuy, adult female Saya, juvenile female Mila, and young male Vasari & females Nola and Chuni).
One of the female coatis is pregnant and is always lurking around the volunteers who are carrying food buckets , as she is very hungry! The rest is doing fine and wandering as far as the viewpoint.

Kinkajous (male Kiko & female Kila)
The hatch of the kinkajous cage was opened again. Both went out directly. Kiko general sleeps during day in the cage while Kila found a place outside. The wild male also is there on occasions, but so far has not caused problems. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a happy end!

Birds

Parakeets

The flying parakeet group of Igor cage has been released but the parakeets have not been interested in leaving the cage immediately. The volunteers open the hatch in the morning and close it again in the evening each day (to prevent snakes from entering during the night) until all of them leave the cage on their own. So far about 16 birds have left the cage whilst some of the free ones have been seen on the roof of the cage or in the trees around the cage.

Clinic

Thanks to the Susy Utzinger Stiftung in Switzerland we can now count with the support for the running costs for the clinic, which is a great achievement. Thank you so much Susy Utzinger for being there, again, for us! We are so happy with the clinic, of which the construction was also financed by the Susy Utzinger Stiftung. We have already achieved many successes here, and thanks to Susy we can keep on helping the animals in need.

Construction

Zambo Cage

The new Zambo cage is finished; including a box for Zambo. Soon we will be able to move Zambo, the young male tayra, from the clinic to his outside cage.

Storage-building

The work for a storage-building the kitchen has begun so that the kitchen food and outside tools can be better stored. This way more living space can be created for the volunteers.

Enrichment

In between the feedings, or as part of construction-jobs, volunteers are inventive in creating enrichment tools for animals. This way the parrots get fruit on a wire, the spiders have to handle a box to get food out, new leaves are brought for the parakeets to play with, and many more.

Volunteers

The volunteers who have not yet been to the Regalia waterfall went on a trip with Caña, and after some very hot weather, enjoyed the heavy jungle rain that suddenly appeared including a slippery and rainy walk towards the waterfall.

They also enjoyed a great night walk with Douwe spotting a wild night monkey, a wild kinkajou and a caiman caught by Douwe.

The volunteers also spent a nice bonfire night celebrating a birthday and sadly having to say goodbye to four volunteers. Fortunately some of them will come back for Saint Nicholas/Christmas!