General Info

Living around Esperanza Verde has become quieter, due to the leaving of several volunteers. On the other hand everybody seems to be busier and there is – as always – a lot to do.

Because it now rains on a regular basis, we can plant new trees in the Esperanza Verde area. We planted around 200 new trees, mostly cedro and shihuahuaco. The volunteer Carl Noyce used the data of the new planted trees and the records of the already planted trees to fulfill a map using QGIS.

We continue to release parakeets and were finally able to empty one of the several parakeet cages. So we are ready for new arrivals.

Monkeys

Yanay ( female spider monkey) is assumed to be pregnant. Her belly gets bigger and bigger each day and gets us wondering when she’s due. The length of pregnancy with this monkey species is about 7 months, so we calculate for May or April. Of course things like that are always unpredictable. She will become more protective about herself with time and this could be the cause for some problems. We keep an eye on her.

Silvana (female squirrel monkey) is doing well and taking good care of her baby.

Willow (male woolly monkey) seems to appreciate the company of female volunteers. He is double as excited for a new woman as he is for new man in the group. But nothing beats the friendship to Kamari (male wooly monkey) or Rincay (Tapir).

Nakoya (female wooly monkey) will be off of the milk in the next weeks. We already cut off the afternoon milk, now we want her to be independent of all the milk. Let`s see if she likes that. For now she still whines like a little baby in the morning and afternoon at the bodega.

By the next week we should get two more arrivals: a baby capuchin monkey and a young howler monkey. All of us are excited to see the new guests.

Other Mammals

The Opossums are now in the a small cage in the front cage of the aviary (Pichu) front cage. There they have a bigger cage then before, with more space to run around. The really big grasshoppers are their favorite food. They are going to be released soon, healthy and ready, which can make all of the volunteers who have been and are taking part of the raising proud.

We decided to weight Elmo (two toed sloth). He is doing great. This gave the volunteers the chance to check his firm grip and to make some cute pictures.

Birds

Pauki (oropendola) loves to be around the volunteers. He picks his favorites among them and follows this one around. Sometimes the whole day, or he follows Olivia around, so we are always warned of her coming.

Supay (shiny cowbird) is an enrichment for all the birds in the aviary, we all know that. But he gained a bit too much weight. So we cut his diet to one feeding a day. So far he looks okay and if he gets angry he will eat Asan‘s (macaw) food.

There are new plans for the office birds – Picor (parakeet), Apu (aratinga), and other parakeets. With the releasing going on, at some point we are able to put them into the cage nearby the volo house (casa). Especially Picor will be happy to have space to use his wings more.

The releasing of the parakeets is still the main focus right now. We transported more of the birds from a normal to a releasing cage. As mentioned one of the normal cages is finally empty. We see that as a sign, that we do the right thing, the right way.

Reptiles

We changed the feeding time from morning to the afternoon. This way, we see the tortoises more often and can make sure that they get to eat their food.

Nasca (female yellow-footed tortoise) is almost through with her quarantine period. Coming week it will be time to introduce Pepito (male tortoise living with Rincay) to his new lady-friend.

Construction

Some cages in the clinic are already finished and will get a clean-up in the next days. As soon as they are dust free, we will start painting the doors. And now the clinic is fully closed, the outside doors are in and all windows have mesh. Yanay, the spider monkey, will not be able to mess around anymore!

And when there is time, we will restore the mesh of the windows in the kitchen.

As the old boat had been worn down by all the transportations of materials for the clinic, and needed some repairs, we decided it was time for a new boat. The old boat is now newly painted, repaired and soon to be ready to enter the water again. Our fleet will then contain 2 boats, which is amazing.

Volunteers

We had a small group of four to six people for a while, but we are growing bigger by the end of January again. Pros are, that we can train the new volunteer well, cons are, that we have limited hands and can’t be everywhere. The evenings are quiet and relaxing though. Also making dinner is a lot easier, if you only have to cook for a few persons.