Esperanza Verde Update / August 2017

This last month has been one of the toughest ones for Esperanza Verde and it is with heavy hearts we’ve had to say goodbye to some of our dearest animals…
Willow, Rincay, Zambo and Camila all had a special place in our hearts and we will miss having them around. You can see a special homage for them on our Facebook page.
And as if it was not enough we lost two of the new baby birds, as well as Crickie, one of our yellow footed tortoises. All and all a hard month here….
But we’ve carried on and thanks to a lot of hard work from Douwe, Olivia, the workers and volunteers, we have finished the turtle pond AND the deer enclosure! As well we welcomed a very young newcomer. Read about it all below…

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Monkeys

With Willow gone (male woolly monkey) there has been a lot of changes in our outside group.
Kamari (also male woolly monkey) has had to step up in his role as leader and all together we see a more united group. Nakoya, female woolly monkey, who’ve had some problems with parasites before is looking healthier and seems to become more dominant. Losing a monkey is never fun but we are happy to see that the outside group is still doing fine.

Uma (female woolly monkey)

Uma
Uma

Uma, who spent her quarantine period up in the SUST Animal Orphan Hospital, was moved to an outside cage so she could have contact with the outside monkeys. We brought Maruja, a female woolly monkey of the same age, in the cage with Uma in hopes of a friendship. It sort of worked but still Uma seems to have connected the best with is Loki, male woolly monkey, who had contact with her from the outside through the fence. And when the time for release came it was Loki she straight away teamed up with. Now she has gotten to know everyone better but it is still with Loki we find her at the end of the day.

Rioma, Tisha, Lia (female brown capuchins) & Maku (male wild brown capuchins)

In March we received five capuchin monkeys when the ministry of flora and fauna made a surprise visit. After being introduced to the outside group only three of them stayed around. And we are happy to tell you that the remaining ones; Lia, Tisha and Rioma all have adapted well. They have especially taken a liking to the wild male Maku.

Mayantu (baby female brown capuchin)

Mayantu, as we named the very young baby of about 6 weeks old, was carried here on the arm by a young girl from the village. Her mother was shot and eaten by the family and she was taken home as a pet.  Dajeli, one of the other children of the village, and godchild of Douwe and Olivia, convinced her to come here. Very skinny, but alert and active, we took her under our care. It brings back memories of the beginning, when we took care of the first monkey of Esperanza Verde, Mica, now a healthy adult female brown capuchin.

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Other Mammals

Kiko & Kila (male and female Kinkajous)

Kiko
Kiko

The kinkajous got a bit of an environmental change. Further down you can read about our plans for Sheena (tropical screech owl) and because of this Sheena and the kinkajous swapped cages.
We are stalling their release for now until we come up with a plan that doesn’t involve Kiko getting hurt once again… For now though the volunteers enjoy having them closer to the kitchen and Kiko and Kila seem to enjoy Pepe cage!

Lulu (female two-toed sloth)

Lulu
Lulu

Last month we took the step to let Lulu spend the nights outside of her cage. This turned out to be three nights and when she finally showed up one day by the clinic she had lost a lot of weight. We believed this was because Elmo (male two-toed sloth released about 4 years ago) kept stealing her food. She got put in Roko cage and once she was a bit heavier again we let her out. This time we put her food table in a different location to avoid Elmo eating from it, and it has worked! So far no sign of Elmo, but for a few days no signs of Lulu either… Until she once again showed up hanging under the clinic roof. We are a bit unsure how she got there but our guess is she has gotten over the fence, walked along the ground and has gotten up to the roof by climbing on the wire mesh of one of the cages, pretty creative sloth. For now we will let her gain weight and try to release her again.

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Birds & Reptiles

Sheena (tropical screech owl)

Sheena
Sheena

The plans of releasing Sheena are set in place. She has now gotten moved to Tiliku cage, which is further away from the monkeys and as well has a hatch for releasing birds. She seems to enjoy her cage as there are not as many distractions (monkeys) over there. The family cat Simba seems to have taken a liking to her though… We will see how that develops, so far she reacts well and flies away. Now she needs to get used to that area and hopefully she will soon be ready for semi-release!

Five baby birds

(Two ruddy ground doves, two palm tanagers and one of the seedeater sp.)
Last month we received, within two days, five baby birds! After a lot of intensive care with round the clock feeding they all became independent and good flyers after some weeks. About the two tanagers (named Yagu & Zazu now found out to be palm tanagers) and the bird of unknown specie (we believe he is some sort of seedeater and we named him Buco!) you can read more about further down under SUST Animal Orphan Hospital, unfortunately not a happy ending for all of them…
The two doves we managed to release quite soon after they could eat independently. Nicely done by everyone involved.

Crickie (yellow footed tortoise)

Our old friend Crickie who spent a lot of time with us up in the clinic unfortunately is not with us anymore. In the making of the new turtle pond we didn’t anticipate that the tortoises would have such a hard time to walk on the cement compared to the previous mud floor. So when we walked by the next morning we found Crickie dead in the pond since he was unable to get out. We have since that improved the pond too make it safe for tortoises and volunteer Andreas from Germany has taken the job in training the tortoises daily to the pool. This way all of them will learn what to do in case they fall in. Also tortoises can receive some water-survival-training!

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SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

At the moment only Martha (yellow footed tortoise) and Rabito (red brocket deer) are at the clinic, but that doesn’t mean it is less busy! At this moment we have a lot of time to focus on faeces samples and the overall health of the other animals!

Buco (Seedeater sp.)

Unfortunately one day the smallest bird with us was found dead on the floor in the cage. After necropsy we believe the cause of death was some sort of accident, it might have involved the other birds (the palm tanagers) but we do not know. Buco arrived last month tiny, and even though he got some feathers he remained tiny (4 gr when he arrived and 8 gr at death) and we were not able to figure out his exact specie.

Yagu & Zazu (palm tanagers)

Zazu
Zazu

They spent a few more days in the clinic and then it was time to introduce them to an outside cage. Since the parakeets quickly accepted the dove Chipi a few months ago we hoped that it would go well with the tanagers as well. And it did, but unfortunately the outside didn’t treat one of them well and a monkey managed to grab on to Yagu’s leg through the wire mesh and rip it off. He was later euthanized since there was nothing we could do for him.
Zazu is doing fine together with all the birds in Igor cage and seems to have learned the hard way to stay away from the fence when there are monkeys around.

Martha (female yellow footed tortoise)

Martha's egg
Martha’s egg

We were all surprised one morning finding out that Martha had laid an egg! Unfortunately it got crushed by her but she has since then laid six of which we were able to save three. Martha came here in May, from the wild. Tortoises can lay fertile eggs still several years after isolation from males, so there is a big change these ones might be fertile. Time will tell. The eggs we managed to rescue are now safely stored with Claire in the cabin, until we find out if they are fertile.
And for Martha, we will see if she lays more eggs and meanwhile we are continuing her medication but hope that she soon can join the other tortoises in Reptile cage.

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Construction

Deer enclosure

The new home for Rabito and Ringo (our two male red brocket deer) is done thanks to Lush Cosmetics! The new cage will be named ‘Pepito’ after our beloved yellow footed tortoise, and Rincays favourite companion. Now we are just waiting until the treatment of Rabitos skin (who still has problems with fungus) will be effective so we can introduce them to each other in their new enclosure.

Turtle pond

Turtles release
Turtles release

Earlier this year we already started saving for the necessary renewal of the turtle pond, and received a donation from the children of the Nuts Basis school Teteringen.  With the donation from Lush Cosmetics we could finance the total costs so we could start. After the preparations, which involved a lot of sand carrying, searching for all the tortoises and turtles to get them out during the time of construction, and more.  After that it went fast and this month we could finish the pond.
Unfortunately we realized it was not safe enough for the tortoises, which are sharing the enclosure with the turtles, so again we took the turtles out and made some improvements. The edges around the pond have gotten a bit more levelled out so the chance of falling in is not as big and as well climbing out will be easier. Also instead of smooth cement along the bottom we have added a layer of cement mixed with sand to give it more friction for the tortoises. We have let some tortoises test it after that and they are able to get out. But so far it seems like we have a successful pond and a lot of happy turtles!

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Volunteers

This last month we’ve had the company of Lauren and Iain from England and two of their good friends Camila and Luke.  Lauren and Iain have been part of Esperanza Verde now for several years, and Lauren has now been our communication manager for some time as a volunteer, looking for sponsors, as well as the big job in handling all the email correspondence with volunteers.
They spent several weeks with us, helping us with all the tasks, as well as preparing another video of Esperanza Verde.  Thank you all for your hard work!

Enrichement
Enrichement

One of the things they got going was the making of enrichment again for our resident animals. There was a friendly competition of who could come up with the best enrichment and team ‘Playviary’ won. And as the name gives away it is a playground for the Aviary. It is yet to be made but we look forward seeing the birds enjoying it. Iain and Lauren have now left but the enrichment making is still continuing, the spider monkeys, the kinkajous, the birds and Churi are all enjoying their new toys.

We have also enjoyed some wildlife; seeing a meter long coral snake, spotting opossums on our nightly cricket hunts and enjoying a sunny trip to the regalia.

Alexandra, Swedish long term volunteer, is now back and together with French Claire, her replacement in the position as assistant manager, and Douwe they will take care of things while Olivia leaves for Holland in the mid of September for a month.

Esperanza Verde Update / July 2017

What a busy month it has been at Esperanza Verde! We have had to say goodbye to volunteers, and welcome many more. New baby birds have arrived, as well as a young woolly monkey will join our ever increasing monkey group. The excitement never seems to stop, and our volunteers are working hard every day to keep the centre running at top speed. Read on to find out more of what´s been going on with your favorite animals! Great news we received in the last month that the Dutch foundation Jaap vd Graaf decided to support Esperanza Verde with a huge donation. Thank you!

When someone enjoys walking in the forest a lot, there is enough opportunity here, and, if lucky, can encounter several animals. This way Philip from Switzerland has seen an otter, a king vulture, a caiman and spotted our Elmo.

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Monkeys

Uma (female woolly monkey)

Once more, a new baby monkey joins our family! Douwe and Olivia received a call from former volunteer Enrico, who currently lives in nearby Pucallpa. A woman he knew had her and Enrico was able to confiscate Uma and hand her over to Esperanza Verde. Uma came to us in good health; she is around ten months old. For now, Uma lives in the SUST Animal Orphan Hospital.

Mica, Kres & Maku (female brown capuchins and male brown capuchin)

Kres
Kres

The three capuchins we put in the La Sapa cage a few weeks ago are doing well. Volunteers have been keeping an eye out to see if Mica and Maku are interested in each other. Mica originally had to be enclosed because her attraction to our assistant manager Alex led to Mica biting her in a moment of jealousy. We hope this time of forced enclosure will bond Mica enough with Maku, and even better get her pregnant. They were already sleeping together on the first night! We decided to keep them in the cage for a few more weeks, but alas, Mica showed us how smart she was when she snuck out of the cage one morning at a moment of unawareness of the volunteer feeding. With little reason to keep Maku enclosed, he was released later that day. Kres went out as well, and had some good moments with Nera (female capuchin monkey) outside. Unfortunately as soon as she hears or sees Olivia she starts following her. She seems to see her as her main caregiver, so now Olivia will need to start hiding.

Monano (male woolly monkey)

After getting his foot caught in a tree a while back, Monano seems to have fully recovered from the ordeal. He spent some time in the clinic, and has now been released again. Volunteers kept a close watch on him when feeding the baby monkeys milk. We were worried for a while when Monano seemed to have a hard time climbing down from the trees, but we are happy to report he has returned to normal, continuing to play with the other woolies and monkeys who live around Esperanza Verde.

Wallace (male howler monkey)

Wallace continues to steal the hearts of our volunteers, despite his grumpy attitude. He gave us a scare one morning, and we found him with a torn ear from the capuchins. We were worried the ear could get infected, but Wallace has recovered well from the incident. Other than that, Wallace continues to grow bigger and more independent each week, and we have adjusted our care for him to encourage him to be with the monkeys more than humans. He spends the days outside playing with Yanay the spider monkey, Willow the adult woolly monkey, or any number of our baby woolly monkeys.

Sira (female night monkey)

Sira gave us quite a scare these past few weeks. Volunteers noticed she wasn´t eating in her cage, and everyone realized they hadn´t seen her in a while. A watch was put out for Sira, and it was going on a week when someone spotted her near Sheena´s cage. After a few more brief appearances, Sira seems to have returned. Olivia caught and weighed her, and she has been gaining weight! This is an excellent sign, as it means Sira was able to find food for herself. We´re still keeping an eye out for Sira, but for now it seems like she will be staying with us for a while longer.

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Other Mammals

Rincay (male Brazilian tapir)

Rincay
Rincay

Rincay has fallen ill recently. During his regular feedings, volunteers noticed he was eating considerably less than usual and wasn´t waiting by the gate like he usually does for his food. Olivia and Douwe have been checking on him frequently, giving him chamomile tea, forest leaves and extra spinach to help him. Normally playful and in the way, Rincay started acting skittish when people came near him. He stopped showing up at the gate for his food, causing more concern for his health. He is currently under treatment, and we hope we will get him back to his normal self soon.

Lulu (female two-toed sloth) and Elmo (male two-toed sloth)

Lulu
Lulu
Chipping Lulu
Chipping Lulu

Lulu has been doing exceptionally well in her new cage. Recently, we have started taking her outside in the afternoons to practice her climbing. She caused some panic with how she was climbing, but this a great sign! One day, Lulu wasn´t coming down when we called her, and reluctantly, she was left outside for the night, too high up for anyone to get her. Everyone was looking for her the next day. To our surprise and delight, we saw Elmo in a tree past one of the bird cages. Lulu was found a few hours later, when Douwe built a small table for her to find her food. It´s a great sign Elmo was near Lulu, and we hope the two of them will continue to be friends. Now Lulu is outside and we see her every other day, so we can keep on checking up on her, sometimes taking her into the clinic to weigh.

Zambo (male tayra)

Zambo
Zambo

Our resident tayra has been a hot conversation topic around Esperanza Verde as of late. As you may know, Zambo is leashed up twice a day to be taken outside for a walk. Once he is far enough away from the center, he is unleashed and allowed to walk freely for a few hours. Volunteers have encountered a problem when it comes time to re-leash Zambo, and he becomes difficult to walk with, constantly trying to play or jump at them. We have been throwing ideas around with Douwe, speculating if the harness leash was rubbing him wrong or if he was growing bored from walking the same paths. The people who walk Zambo continue to come up with different methods to deal with Zambo. We´ve started providing enrichment for Zambo every day, including putting pieces of rotten wood in his cage for him to claw and find insect larvae.

Tamana (female tamandua)

One night Claire heard some noise outside of the cabin, and while searching we were happily surprised to find Tamana in a palm tree enjoying termites from a big nest hanging there. We weighed her quickly and let her enjoy the rest of the termites again. She is doing very well.

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Birds

Sheena (tropical screech owl)

Sometimes animals are easy to care for, and sometimes it takes a village. Sheena has adapted well to living outside of the clinic. She is fed crickets and meat three times a day, which means our volunteers continue catching crickets for her each day, although this has become quite an endeavor with crickets being harder and harder to find at the plantation. Nonetheless, we continue catching them to feed our favorite screech owl. Sheena continues practicing hunting the crickets in her cage. The better she gets, the more chance she will have of a successful release in the wild. For now, we are continuing with our efforts with the cricket farm and looking for new places to catch crickets.

Five baby birds (two doves, two tanagers and one of yet unknown species)

Baby Bird feeding
Baby Bird feeding

In a matter of two days, five young birds have joined our midst. Two boys from the village were climbing a coconut tree when a nest fell out, containing two baby birds. They hid them in the bushes, but another child warned Kayla and with the help of a teacher found they were handed over to Kayla to bring to Esperanza Verde. The birds were fairly bold the first day and after 5 days got beautiful green feathers.
The same day of their arrival, a young girl from Bello found a broken nest with two young doves and passed them to Kayla. The next day, a boy found two birds. Unfortunately, one of them died but the other seems to be doing well. A very tiny bird, the smallest we have had in our care ever with only 5 grams. The species cannot be determined yet.
All of the birds require round the clock feedings. The doves are old enough to live in the clinic now, while the other three are being cared for at the family house.

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SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

Marlen with Misha and Manchon
Marlen with Misha and Manchon

For a time, Pinto (the small tortoise) was the only resident until the arrival of Uma. We said goodbye to the two house cats who are now both at a local family.
We decide to use this time to do a deparasitation campaign in the village, with a lot of success and followed by the visit of two dogs from the village for castration.

Pinto (yellow footed tortoise)

After spending a long time in the clinic, Pinto was finally ready for a new home! Pinto came to us in April, and he got his name because his shell had been painted over (thankfully the paint could be washed off). He remained in the clinic to be treated for parasites, and after checking him over one last time, he was deemed healthy enough join the others in the reptile enclosure.

Deparasitation campaign

Team SUSY
Team SUSY
Marlon with a Puppy
Marlon with a Puppy

With the sponsorship of the Susy Utzinger Stiftung in Switzerland, Esperanza Verde was able to conduct a deparasitation campaign in Bello Horizonte. It was hugely successful, with many people from the village bringing their dogs (and a few cats) to be treated. French head volunteer Claire, German veterinary volunteer Marlen, and Swiss volunteer Philip also helped Olivia and Douwe during the day. Overall, 41 animals were successfully treated. We hope to have more campaigns in the future, because it not only helps the animals directly but helps us to educate their owners about the importance of their pets’ health and their own safety.

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Construction

Deer enclosure

Thanks to an incredibly generous donation from Lush Cosmetics in England, our vision of an enclosure for the two deer, Rabito and Ringo, can become true. The enclosure will be built across from the spider monkeys´ cage. Already construction has begun, with posts being put up around the area. More work will be done when building materials arrive in a few weeks from Lima. We are incredibly thankful to finally have a proper home for the red deer, who have waited patiently since their arrival in early 2016 for a place of their own.

Cricket farm

Babies have been heard in our cricket farm! Everyone was delighted by this success, but of course it couldn´t be that simple. The cricket babies were so small that they could escape through the fine wire mesh of the boxes. Thankfully, with the farm being in the bodega, volunteers are able to catch some of the escaped crickets. We are loathe to give up on the farm after so much work has been put into it, but our efforts are not producing the results we wanted. It may be time to look elsewhere for more crickets.

Monkey table

At long last, construction on one of the three monkey tables has finally been completed. A cement platform was built underneath the wire table used for feeding the monkeys. Douwe felt inspired to finish it when volunteers complained it was difficult to clean up the food that was dropped. It´s important that we clean up the food as best as possible or ants and other insects will be attracted to the area, putting people and animals at risk of getting bitten by bullet ants.

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Volunteers

Last month our Swedish volunteers led us in a celebration of Mid-summer, and this month our group of Americans decided to throw a party for the Fourth of July. They made the jungle version of food they would eat at home and sang the national anthem a few times. Everyone had a great time with a bonfire, cake, and playing Bingo, which Douwe won both times.

Earlier this month, most of our volunteers went on a day trip to the Regalia, a large waterfall upstream of the main river that cuts through Bello Horizonte and Esperanza Verde. They all had a great time, even when a storm broke on their way back. The water level was so low, they had to get out several times to push the boat across the surface and wade through the river until it got deep enough again. Of course, it was back to work as usual when they made it back.

Our long-term volunteer-assistant manager Alex has left for a month to explore Peru with another volunteer, and we are excited to welcome back Claire Gillant from France as her replacement. Claire has extensive volunteer experience, having been a volunteer two years ago at Esperanza Verde as well as spending time at Merazonia. She will be staying with us for several months, and taking over from Alex when she leaves for home to start studying.

Esperanza Verde Update / June 2017

Monkeys being released, monkeys being closed in and the Dalton, (5 cobalt winged parakeets) which we raised from young, finally got to see a life outside of a cage. The running of a wildlife rescue center gives a lot of joy & sense of accomplishment but not all of the decisions are easy ones and this month we unfortunately had to make one of the harder ones. You can read more about all of it below…

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Monkeys

Lia, Rioma & Tisha (female brown capuchins)

The three females which were lured back into the cage after it had accidentally been left open are now released. They enjoy their freedom and are hanging out with the other capuchin monkeys. Of Selma (female brown capuchin) and Kaito (male white fronted capuchin) we have only heard that Machico saw them possibly with a group of squirrel monkeys at the plantation. We hope it was them and that they are doing well.

Mica, Kres & Maku (female brown capuchins and a male brown capuchin)

Mica and Maku
Mica and Maku
Kres and Mica going with Maku
Kres and Mica going with Maku
Kres
Kres

Micas attraction to Alexandra, our assistant manager, continued to stay strong and once again she managed to get to Alex in order to give her a ’love’ bite. It was unfortunately placed around the Achilles tendon so Douwe had to make some crutches for her to be able to move around. As we can´t keep going on like this we decided to catch the big new male Maku and match him up with Mica. They are now together with Kres, the young female brown capuchin we received last month, in La Sapa cage. It was not love at first sight, but at least they spend the first night sleeping close to each other. And after two days she was giving him a full grooming session. We hope it will work out, and Mica finally stops searching among us for a mate. Who knows, we might have the first baby capuchin in about 6 months!!

Monano (male woolly monkey)

Monano released
Monano released

The baby monkey group is just growing and growing! Monano spent some time in Lucia cage but has now joined the others on the outside. In the beginning we were a bit worried since he seemed to like following the humans everywhere but he quickly realized who his real peers are and him and Pashko seem to get along really well. At the moment though he is having some trouble with his right hind leg. Volunteers heard a monkey screaming and it was Monano that had gotten his foot stuck in a fork of a tree. A volunteer quickly got him out of there and we gave him a check up; nothing seems to be broken so we hope he will heal himself.

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Other Mammals

Ossi (Male olingo)

Since a couple of weeks back Ossi has not been back to his cage during the day. He was encountered recently by a local worker, so we hope that there are other Olingos nearby and he can join them. We wish him the best!

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Birds

The Daltons (cobalt winged parakeets)

Two daltons on arrival
Two daltons on arrival
Luke and the Daltons on arrival
Luke and the Daltons on arrival
Daltons going out
Daltons going out

Luke, Jack, Everell, William & Joe are finally released! They started their journey back in September last year when they arrived here as small chicks. Hand fed by syringe they were raised by us. And in hope of not getting them to tame (we never petted them or let them get on us) they were put together with the non-flying parakeets and have been with them since. It seemed they were learning more and more to stay away from us. In the beginning they would still fly toward us at feeding time, but in time you could not even catch them when we tried. So the time came to do another separation between flyers and non flyers. We thought The Daltons should get their chance and together with the other flyers they quickly made their way out to freedom! Unfortunately it did not entirely turn out this way. On the second day, one of The Daltons was unfortunately caught by Axira (female white fronted capuchin) and killed. Because of this we’ve reviewed our release policy and birds considered too tame will be recaught. So by now we have two Daltons back, and two are still out with several white-winged parakeets. Let’s hope they learned and will be able to make it on their own with the help of the other outside parakeets.

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SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

This month there were a lot of animals leaving the SUST Hospital. Even our long-term Lulu is now gone, although she is still been taken care for by the clinic-person. And Pinto is still a guest as well as Rabito. We had some new arrival, not all wildlife, but also two house-cats.

Sheena (tropical screech owl)

Sheena in her box
Sheena in her box

After some time in the clinic Sheena has now moved to an outside cage, where she can fly a longer distance in order to strengthen her wing muscles. Sometimes it is a bit hard for her with all the distractions that comes from living outside, such as interested monkeys jumping on the cage and even the wind! But she is eating well and seems to enjoy her new temporarily home.

When Sheena first arrived we believed her to be a tawny-bellied screech owl but after having her here for a couple of months we have now determined her to be a tropical screech owl.

Quintisha, Kohana and Timo (Collared Peccaries)

Quintisha
Quintisha
Peccaries
Peccaries

This month the turn came to the peccaries to be chipped! The only one that got successfully chipped so far is Timo (no strange thing since he is the youngest and tamest one & he has the smallest tusks!). Douwe, together with the help of Kayla, got him closed in against the fence with a piece of wire mesh and was able to chip him! Now only awaits the two bigger ones!

Lulu (young female two-toed sloth)

Lulu in Roko cage
Lulu in Roko cage

Due to the capuchins being in La Sapa cage the move of Lulu has, once again, been delayed. That’s just how it works in the jungle, you never know what might happen! But as we had another cage empty we decided to make the Roko cage ready for her. A bit smaller but a good start for a first outside cage since it is closer to the volunteer kitchen so we can keep a good eye on her. She is doing well, adapted very quickly and has even begun to eat her raw green beans!

Chili (Black fronted Nun-bird)

Chili
Chili

After treating Chili (with the splintered bone fracture in his wing), it still showed too little progress. The wing would have to be amputated, and if Chili would survive this operation and long and hard recovery it would still only be able to live either in a small cage or in a outside cage on the floor with other birds above him. After a lot of contemplation between our volunteer veterinarian Marlen from Germany, Alex, Douwe and Olivia, we could not see a future for this not tame bird and could not see him being happy with either situation so we decided for euthanasia. As always these decisions are one of the hardest to make. We hope people can understand, and how important it is to educate children and adults about these problems. The children who caused this (shooting him with a slingshot) simply have no idea about the pain they cause. We see education as one of our priorities here at EV. Kayla and Marlon form an important part in this already, as they go to the local school and explain to the children about our work. They do a great job as many rescued animals have been brought home by them from school

Yellow footed tortoise

new tortoise released
new tortoise released

With help of the local community we are able to save a lot of animals, this time it was one of our workers who had found a tortoise on his plantation. For fear of being taken by people he brought it here. And not a small one, almost 7 kg! The problem with tortoises of this size is that they are valuable for their meat and are easily encountered. After a feces sample we saw that it was without parasites so we decided to release it in the woods behind the family house where we hope it will not encounter humans.

Martha (yellow footed tortoise)

After several weeks in the clinic trying to get rid of various parasites she is now almost completely clean. And even thought she is not rid of all of them we have decided to give her some more space by moving her to Momo cage (the enclosure that surrounds the long term volunteer cabin). Once she is ready she will be the new companion of Pepito, also yellow footed tortoise, and Rincay, the tapir!

Misha

Misha on the scale
Misha on the scale
Marlen doing castration
Marlen doing castration

A surprise visit we did not expect: a house cat! One day a grey cat was seen at our plantation, and later near the garbage burning oven. Then some time later she followed one of the volunteers and we got her into the clinic. We asked around in the village if someone was missing a cat, but no one came forward. Very skinny and full of parasites we took her in. We have now found a good home with a local family. They said they would take her, but as they also had a male, they would prefer not to have kittens. Marlen castrated her (yes, you do say this also with females when you cut out the ovaries) and treated her for parasites and now she is almost ready to go home again. Someone also brought the male cat over, to be castrated, and to get to know Misha, before they go home together. Since we began to go to the village a few years ago as part of a deworming program, people come to us more and more for help with their pets. Through this programme we have been able to help with deworming, infections and castrations to keep the growth of abandoned dogs and puppies down. This has all been possible thanks to the ‘Susy Utzinger Stiftung’ in Switzerland, as they financed these programs as well as all the running costs of the Hospital.

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Construction

Storage Building

Since the Guest house is now completely finished and ready for use the work has started on the storage building. The construction of the storage building was started late last summer and was paused due to the construction of the guesthouse. The purpose of the storage building is to have a place to store tools and the food for the volunteer kitchen. It will also have a roofed area outside which will make it easier to construct things during rainy days.

Cricket farm

The crickets got their first offspring. Well done Kaspar, Nico and Rob! After we heard them singing for the first time several weeks ago we had high hopes. The outside-cricket catching takes a toll on all, as it gets harder and harder to find them. It is as if they know we are coming! So with this progress we hope we can put less pressure on the outside crickets as well as on the volunteers catching them.

If you have any experience from breeding crickets and could give us some tips e-mail us at info@esperanzaverdeperu.com

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Volunteers

This month the volunteers went on a walk in Selva Dormida with Geiler, one of the local workers. Also Bert-Jan from Holland has constructed a boot rack where we can store our boots. They are stored upside down so hopefully the will dry faster (and prevent monkeys to pee and poo in them!). A job many already thought of and tried, but finally it got there!

Since we have two Swedish volunteers here at the moment we also got to experience Midsummer, a tradition which is celebrated in Sweden each summer on 23 of June. And to mix it all up the day after we celebrated San Juan, a Peruvian tradition, where you eat food made in a leaf package, called Juanes. It represents his head, as this saint gave his head up to help people. We ate our juanes at the waterfall and had some nice relaxing moments in the water and sun!

Esperanza Verde Update / May 2017

Another eventful and exciting month has passed here in the jungle! We’ve had visits from both new and old animals. Elmo made a quick appearance and Olivia and Douwe were able to weigh him and make sure he was okay. It is always a great pleasure to see old residents of Esperanza Verde living a thriving independent life. A wild male capuchin also showed up and for a brief moment we thought it might be Jordi. Jordi, one of our older male capuchins had been missing for several weeks, but this was a new face! It seems he replaced Jordi as the alpha male.
And special wildlife sightings: a king vulture and a caiman (1,5 meter long) living in the stream near the family house!

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Monkeys

Cappuchins cage
Cappuchins cage

Kaito (male white-fronted capuchin), Lia, Selma, Rioma & Tisha (Female brown capuchins)

Just like animals we humans are not perfect. The main lock on La Sapa cage, where our newest capuchins are staying, was not properly locked. As intelligent as the capuchins are they quickly figured this out and were able to escape! Three of the females were quickly located and lured back into the cage. But Kaito and Selma are at the moment still out and about. We were not planning on releasing them until the beginning of June, to give them some time to adjust to their new home and let the already existing monkeys safely get familiar with the new group through the cage. So now we all have our eyes and ears open for Kaito and Selma and if the other monkeys are acting up around them.

Babymonkeys (4 woolly monkeys (Lupa, Samara, Pashko, Chiquita), 3 capuchin monkeys (Axira, Khali, Cinty) and one baby red howler monkey (Wallace)

Our group of baby monkeys that just seems to grow and grow is doing very well. They bask in the sun on nice days, climb high up in the treetops with the grown-ups, play around and enjoy each other’s company. They are all evolving into their own personalities and it is incredible to observe their progress.

Loki & Maruja (Woolly monkeys)

The two young woolly monkeys were adjusting fine in the outside cage and have been released to join the outside group! They are working well with their fellow monkeys, Maruja especially with Kamari (grown male woolly). You will often see her hanging out on his back teaching her the ways of life. At times Loki will fall back into his old habits and either reach for volunteers or grab on to them, but he is getting more and more interested in his monkey friends and less occupied with humans which is a good sign.

Wallace (Baby howler monkey)

Maruja and Wallace playing
Maruja and Wallace playing

This month our baby boy took a big step forward. At times he left the safety of Alex’s cabin and slept outside with the other monkeys. He is still under surveillance during the days though, as his mood can quickly change and he slips into a depression. He is one moody monkey who has stolen everyone’s heart.

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Other Mammals

Soraya (female porcupine)

After so much time, and with some outside help, we finally figured out the exact species, and no wonder that it was hard, as apparently this species has not often been seen. She is a western Amazonian dwarf porcupine or Coendou ichillus. She has adapted well to living in an outside cage again, after the long period of stay at the hospital. The wound on her leg has recovered but she is still weak with her right hind leg (when she arrived she could not move it at all), so we fear we will not be able to ever release her.

Ossi (Male olingo)

We have now started to open Ossi’s cage during the night, which has been quite successful. At times he will stay out in the jungle for a week and then decide to make a short appearance and shows his cute face. We see this as great progress as he arrived as a baby, was raised by humans and now can be out in the wild all on his own!

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Birds

King vulture
King vulture

This month the birds have not caused too much ruckus!

Hoatzin
Hoatzin

We received 2 hoatzins that died shortly after they arrived. The necropsy later revealed that both of the birds had a lot of food in their crop that they should not have eaten, possible causing problems. They were beautiful birds, taken out of their nest so young and we did our best and hoped, but were not able to keep them alive. It is very hard for any young animal to survive the first human intervention!

Churi (many-banded aracari)

Churi in aviary
Churi in aviary

tested his wings again in the large aviary cage but was later taken back to Pepe cage where he now stays alone. This time it was Churi who was intimidated and stressed by the other birds, not the other way around as it has been before, what goes around comes around! He was supervised during his short visit in the aviary but still managed to disappear into the cage and after a couple of minutes of intense searching he was located and taken back to Pepe cage. This process will be repeated a few times a month to try and ease Churi in with the other birds so he does not have to live a life alone in his cage.

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SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

Lulu (young female two-toed sloth)

Lulu and Elmo
Lulu and Elmo
Elmo and Olivia
Elmo and Olivia

Our young female sloth is no longer a baby; she slowly is taken of off her milk and is stimulated to eat more raw vegetables and wild-leaves. She is taken out still twice a day for a walk and for climbing in trees, and soon she will be moved out of the hospital to a big outside cage. As it fits a sloth we prepare her slowly for her release. This month she had a first encounter with a con-specific: Elmo (our released male sloth). While weighing Elmo we got them acquainted, and Lulu had a chance to smell and lick Elmo’s face.

Sheena (tawny-bellied screech owl)

Our very own Sheena is excelling at her training and now eats up to 50 crickets a day! This means more frequent visits to the plantation to catch crickets for the volunteers. Our Swiss volunteer Kaspar and French volunteer Nico have now, with some help from Douwe, finished the cricket farms. We are still in a trial period trying to figure out how it will be the most effective. So far the farm has not successfully produced any new crickets, but we are hopeful and optimistic about its possibilities.

Chili (Black fronted Nun-bird)

Chili in SUST AOH EV
Chili

Chili is another addition to the SUST Animal Orphan Hospital this month. Just like Sheena he eats crickets, thankfully not as many! He is one little nervous guy who we are looking forward to treat and take care of. He was shot out of the tree with a catapult. The stone splintered one of his wings and he might never be able to fly. We are treating him and will wait….sometimes animals show amazing recovering!

Monano (Male baby woolly monkey)

Monano
Monano

This month we received another baby woolly monkey! He came from a local family in Bello Horizonte, after Olivia had spoken to the family about how he could have a better life over here at Esperanza Verde with his own species. They realized she was right and brought him over a couple of days later. He is named Monano and is a 14 month old male who right now stays in the SUST Animal Orphan Hospital.

When he arrived his checkup showed that he was healthy, except for a couple of sand flea eggs in his foot that Douwe quickly removed. He was chipped and now spends his time playing in the hammock in his cage. At times you will find Maruja (baby woolly) or Loki (young woolly monkey) sitting outside of his cage observing and curios about their future new friend.

Chipping of the outside monkeys

Chipping Camila
Chipping Camila
chipping Yanay
chipping Yanay
chipping Nikita
chipping Nikita

The process of chipping all our un-chipped animals was also set in motion during May. We successfully chipped several monkeys and we were at the same time able to find out the sex of Camilas (female squirrel monkey) baby, and it’s a female! She is now named Canila.

Camila with her baby
Camila with her baby

The monkeys we managed to chip were Camila and her baby (female squirrel monkeys), Sira (female nightmonkey), Yanay (female spider monkey), Nikita (female capuchin), Nakoya and Chiquita (female woolly monkeys) and Monano – our new baby woolly monkey. So far the most difficult one left, is our big woolly monkey friend and strong male, Kamari.
And then the peccaries……..

The chipping is a stressful moment for both animals and humans but is a necessity if the case ever comes that we have to be able to identify our animals.

Mica is continuing to show an affectionate behavior towards our assistant manager Alexandra, and we took the moment in act of being able to get close to her to catch her, and she will stay with the new capuchins in the La Sapa cage. This way we hope she will bond with them, so they can be released together.

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Construction

Guest House

Porch of the guest house
Porch of the guest house

The guest house is nearly complete! There are some finishing touches that need to be done but in the near future it will be ready to welcome its first guests.

Cricket farm

Kaspar and Nico have been working hard to get the cricket farms ready and we have finally started the process and put our first couple of crickets in. Right now we are having some issues with ants entering the boxes and killing several crickets. We are working on different solutions to prevent this. Hopefully this will be the permanent solution to “The cricket situation”, but for now we are still hunting on the plantation every day. Our estimation is that we have caught approximately 2000 crickets during this month already!

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Volunteers

Another successful trip to the Regalia waterfall was done. A night walk with Douwe was also organized, which is always appreciated and exciting. A month filled with many nice bonfires, laughs and good meals from our new chef Doña Flor!

Esperanza Verde Update / April 2017

Some busy weeks here at Esperanza Verde! Besides spotting a two-toed sloth we believed could have been Elmo and going on an easter-egg-hunt, the Ministry made a surprise visit and dropped of some animals while most of the volunteers were on a trip to the big waterfall Regalia!
As well another woolly monkey from the village came in our care. All of this and more you can read about below.

Monkeys

Besides the surprise visit from the ministry and the joining of Maruja here at Esperanza Verde everything seems to be going well with our inside and outside monkeys.
Once again it seems that Mica (female brown capuchin) has once again gotten attached to a volunteer. Alex, long term volunteer, and now assistant-manager, got followed day and night for a few days by Mica who was screaming and banging on the windows. It was decided that she would move in with the family for a few days to help her deal with this. Unfortunately when she was about to move over she got bitten by Mica. The bite was not too bad and the wound has healed well by now, and Mica seemed to calm down quickly after she moved in with the family. Only on the first day she showed up, but it seems that as soon as Olivia showed her face she went away. We will see what happens the next time, which will be about every 18 days!!

Maruja & Loki (female and male Woolly Monkeys)

Maruja
Maruja
Loki
Loki

Last month Loki arrived here at EV. During his time at the clinic he was joined by by six month old Maruja who lived with a local in nearby village Bello Horizonte.
They both spent their quarantine period up in the SUST Animal Orphan Hospital and then moved out to Lucia cage as a preparation to join the outside group. They both seem healthy and even though being used to human contact they are doing good with keeping away from the volunteers who daily clean their cage.
And already they have formed a bond with the older woolly monkey male Willow, who spends a lot of time by their cage and we hope that they will quickly be accepted by the outside group!

Wallace (male howler monkey)

Our little baby still lives with Alex at the cabin during the night but is already spending most of the day up in the trees with our other baby monkeys, especially the woolly monkeys Lupa, Chiquita, Samara & Pashko who have welcomed him well. He even spend some nights outside already.
We tried introducing him to Maruja & Loki with the hope that Wallace might be able to spend the night with them in Lucia cage but he did not seem to excited and the time he was in the cage he spent sitting in a corner with his head down. But we are working on getting him more independent so he can become a full-time outside monkey!

Kaito (male white-fronted capuchin), Lia, Tisha, Rioma & Selma (female brown capuchins)

Together with an owl named Sheena, we received 5 capuchin monkeys from the Ministry. We did not know they were arriving and with most of the volunteer group away to the bigger waterfall it was a short moment of chaos.. But when everyone got back all together helped preparing cages for the new animals, and helping out with tours so that Douwe, Oliva, Alex and Nora (Swiss vet student) could do a check up on all the capuchins and put them in a proper cage up in the clinic compared to the quickly built cage they arrived in.
They have most likely been kept as pets or around people and are therefore used to humans. After their quarantine period they were chipped and moved to La Sapa cage. Right now they are doing well. But as always introducing adult monkeys to an already functioning group can always be risky. Joining them with the outside monkeys can endanger all the others; as well it can cause problems with humans. But we hope that by staying in La Sapa cage for a long time, they will get used to the already outside monkey and vice versa. Under SUST Animal Orphan Hospital you can read more about the treatment we gave some of the monkeys when they first arrived.

Other Mammals

Kiko and Kila (male and female kinkajou)

At the start of this month, we opened the hatch from the cage of the kinkajous again. Together with all the volunteers, Douwe opened the hatch and Kiko and Kila looked excited to go out. In the following days we spotted the cage sometimes empty, sometimes with them sleeping inside. Unfortunately there was one night that Douwe and Olivia woke up from loud screaming and Kiko was found fighting with the wild male Kinkajou again. He seems to be all right, except from a swollen scratch on his face that he received antibiotics a while for. For now Kiko and Kila are locked up again.

Zambo (male tayra)

Our beloved Zambo has been taken on walks twice a day since his early days at Esperanza Verde. He is still growing and always looks excited to go on walks. He runs up in the trees as soon as we take of his leash and plays around in the bushes. He does likes to play with us as well and bites our boots every walk a few times. So every Friday we have a Zambo meeting together with Douwe where we discuss his behavior and possible ways of teaching him to keep his distance from humans. So far this seems to help the volunteers in how to handle him and he has since become less interested in us and more interested in the environment.
And this month he has met a snake and also Tamana, the tamandua we released in March, when out walking. Was a close call with the snake (we first believed he might have been bitten but), and with Tamana he got in a little fist fight but both Zambo and Tamana could walk away with all four limbs still intact!

Birds

There is a lot of movement going on with the birds at Esperanza Verde. All the parakeets from Pepe cage are moved in with the birds in Igor cage to use the cages more efficiently. Churi (many-banded aracari), Rhaegar & Daenerys (male and female mealy amazons) were put together in Pepe cage. Churi was very interested in the other birds but Rhaegar & Daenerys seemed to be intimidated by the Aracari´s presence. For their own safety, they were moved again to join the other birds in the aviary. Churi will stay in Pepe cage for some time, and we will try to let him join the aviary as well. During the move all the birds were dewurmed and checked for health problems. Besides the known problems, such as birds with missing eyes or broken wings, they are all doing well.

Chipi (male ruddy ground dove) and Frederick (white-winged parakeet)

Our little dove Chipi was doing very well in the clinic, so it was time to let him join the parakeets in Casa cage. First, the parakeet Tony was brought up to the clinic so we could see how Chipi reacted on other birds and since it went well they were put together into Casa cage. They are doing very well and Chipi looks happy with the new environment!
Frederick, the white-winged parakeet who joined the Casa cage last month, was found dead only a few days after the joining of Chipi. Douwe performed an autopsy and discovered a bleeding in the brain of unknown cause.

Reptiles

Tortoises

Yellow footed tortoise
Yellow footed tortoise

A few times every year we organize a search for all the tortoises in reptile cage. In total we have 18 of yellow-footed tortoises, and about 25 yellow spotter river turtles. Often these animals are forgotten as they have a big enclosure and are mostly hidden from our sight. Now our goal was to find the yellow-footed tortoises. It is not the easiest job to find them but with all volunteers together it is a fun job, and this time we could manage to find 14 of the 18 tortoises but we are keeping an eye out for the four remaining ones.

SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

New arrivals !
New arrivals !

Several animals are treated or given special treatment (e.g. milk and vitamins for all baby monkeys) on a daily basis from out of our Hospital. In this section we mention some of the more special cases.
This month has been especially busy for the clinic! Besides the regular check-ups and treatments of the animals who already resides within Esperanza Verde we had a lot of new animals which means a lot of changes and quarantine treatment.

Kaito (male white-fronted capuchin), Tisha, Selma, Rioma & Lia (female brown capuchins)

As mentioned earlier in the newsletter we got joined by no less than five capuchins. The male Kaito and Tisha seemed to be the healthiest ones. Female Selma is possibly the oldest one and was underweight when coming here but seems to be gaining weight good. Rioma who we believe is the youngest one had a rotten tooth which got taken out by Douwe. The one we were the most worried about was Lia, she came in with a not to serious wound on her leg which she also got treatment for but the entire evening she sat in one corner with head down. Luckily though the next morning she was up and running again together with the others.They were all given treatment for parasites and chipped before we moved them in the outside cage La Sapa.

Loki (male woolly monkey) + Maruja (female woolly monkey)

Loki
Loki

With all volunteers we decided on a name change for Koki, now named Loki. He was joined by a new arrival, Maruja, a young female woolly monkey. She was held as a pet for 6 months at a family in the village. She had a hard time with the change, and was hanging for the first hours like a bat in the cage, ignoring Loki totally. But she got adjusted after a day and loved the hammock that was put in her cage. Both our small furry babies had a hard time getting used to not clinging on the volunteers all the time, but they needed to learn as soon they will be joining the outside group of monkeys.
And then their big day came when they got to move down to and outside cage! Of course the hammock came down with Maruja and both her and Loki seems excited to get to know the outside monkeys.

Sheena (tawny-bellied screech owl)

Sheena, screech owl
Sheena, screech owl

Another new arrival in the clinic is Sheena, the screech owl we received from the Ministery. She is most likely raised by humans and therefore very tame. Unfortunately she has never learned to hunt but should eat little reptiles and insects. To make that happen, our fantastic volunteers go to the plantation every day to catch at least 30 grasshoppers or crickets. Special thanks to our Swiss volunteer Kasper, we have multiple traps and hopefully a little cricket farm soon.
Also Nico, a french volunteer, has taken on the task of trying to train Sheena to catch the crickets instead of us always offering them with a pincet. She already started to catch some herself, so we have hopes to be able to release her at some point.

Pinto (yellow-footed tortoise)

Pinto on arrival
Pinto on arrival
Pinto clean
Pinto clean

Pinto got his name because when he arrived he was painted all over his shell and head. Douwe together with his son Marlon washed it off but the name stuck.
He was brought over here after an unfortunate accident with a bushcutter in the village. A piece of Pinto’s leg was sliced away, and some bone is visible. He undergoes treatment for his wound and after a faeces sample was taken parasites were discovered. We are determining the parasites with help of our veterinarian contacts in Switzerland to be able to give him the best treatment.

Ossi (male olingo)

Ossi in outside cage
Ossi in outside cage

Ossi, has been growing nicely, and eating a lot. He was moved out of the clinic to prepare him for his release in an outside cage. He is adjusting well, we could stop feeding him his porridge as he is eating whole pieces of food now. He is a real big eater


Construction

Guest House

The construction of the guest house is going fast. Douwe has now finished the tiling of the kitchen and will continue soon with the bathroom. It is already looking like a beautiful small house in the middle of the jungle.

General Maintenance

We are at the end of rain season but still we sometimes have a problem with water filling up cages. During the last couple of weeks the volunteers have had a hard time with cleaning the Pepe cage, where at the moment Churi (many-banded aracari) resides. This cage had some drainage problems and became very muddy. To solve this, the volunteers carried lots of stones to the lowest parts of the cage and made a nice path towards it. Now the cage is a lot easier and definitely less frustrating to clean!
But also every month we got cages to fix, paths to maintain and gears to repair. Kees, a Dutch volunteer, and our handy-man, built several sleeping boxes for animals and repaired many steps from the paths with other volunteers.
Furthermore, new enrichments were made for La Sapa cage to entertain the new capuchin monkeys.

Volunteers

At the start of this month, the group of volunteers went to Regalia again. Unfortunately the sun was hiding but besides that it was a lovely day and we saw many beautiful birds, among them several hoatzins, one white throated toucan and a capped heron, on the boat ride back.
An easter egg hunt was organized and on Easter Day all off the volunteers together with the family went to the waterfall for a search! We had some lucky winners (as well monkeys who stole some off the eggs before we could get to them) and after we had a wonderful lunch organized by the family.

Esperanza Verde Update / March 2017

Since the last update it has been relatively calm here at Esperanza Verde. The storm, El-Nino, that seems to have gotten its worst on Peru have thankfully not affected us in any special way.
Tamana, the female tamandua was released and two dove chicks found by Kayla’s friend were brought over here. Also we got a new baby male woolly monkey, named Koki. Right now he stays at the clinic, but he is doing fine. The family enjoyed a two week holiday in Lima together with Olivias parents who came all the way from Holland, leaving Alex and Irene and Kees (two long term volunteers) in charge of Esperanza Verde. Winnie, finished veterinary student from Switzerland, arrived and took great care of the medical side of things whilst the family was gone. The family returned together with the parents who spent a few nights here before returning back to Holland.

Monkeys

Yanay & Chiquita
Yanay & Chiquita

Wallace (male baby red howler monkey)

Wallace
Wallace

One of everyone’s favorites, Wallace, who arrived last month is doing really well and growing incredibly fast. He moved from the family house to the cabin where he is in Alex´s care. During the day some volunteers still take turns babysitting him, which has become much easier as he now loves to play in the trees with the other monkeys. Our adult capuchin, Mica, has once again showed that she’s amazing in taking care of the new baby. Wallace spends most of his playtime with her and also Yanay (female spider monkey) and Willow (male woolly monkey) have been sharing the babysitting duties.

Camila´s baby (sex unknown, squirrel monkey)

Nikita & Camila's baby
Nikita & Camila’s baby

The baby of Camila is also growing incredibly fast. We see the baby climbing around by herself more often than on Camila´s back. She was also spotted getting carried around by Nikita, a female capuchin. It seems that Nikita is taking over, because we see the baby very often on the back of the capuchin. We still do not know the sex of the baby but we will continue to wait in excitement!

Other Mammals

Tamana (juvenile female Tamandua)

Tamana released !
Tamana released !

The tamandua, Tamana, who arrived last month has been released across the small stream by Esperanza Verde and has not been seen since then. Douwe took all the volunteers and the kids to watch the release. It was beautiful to see! She immediately climbed up a tree towards a termite nest and we are confident that she will do well.

Rincay (male tapir)

The friendly tapir steels everyone’s heart with his blue eyes. Did you know that this is very rare? Normally the color of the eyes gets darker when a tapir turns older, but Rincay is keeping his blue ones. He is doing really well together with his best friend Pepito (male, tortoise). Recently their cage got an upgrade; Rincay has now a big shelter built by the local worker Machico and we see him often chilling under his roof.

Timo (male young, collared peccary)

The three peccaries are doing great and Timo is growing fast. Last week it was time to put Timo on a scale, but first we had to distract the other peccaries. Together with some patience and food we got him alone and we could weight him. Timo has a healthy weight and everything is good.

Kiko and Kila (male and female kinkajou)

The kinkajous are doing really good and they´re almost ready to be released. Last week they got their last parasite treatment and we found out that Kila had a botfly in her shoulder. Douwe and Olivia removed the parasite together with two of our Swiss volunteers, who have studied veterinarian medicine.

Birds

Rhaegar & Daenerys (male and female mealy amazon parrots)

Rhaegar & Daenerys
Rhaegar & Daenerys

Rhaegar and Daenerys have finally moved into the Igor cage, together with the seven parakeets that were still there. The birds seemed really happy together and they always wants to talk with the volunteers when they´re cleaning the cage and giving them the food.

Churi (many-banded arasari)
Even though Churi sits alone in his cage, he often gets visits of the volunteers. When Churi gets fresh food, he sometimes wants to share it with the volunteers and he tries to feed them. And volunteers enjoy making enrichment for him, so we make sure that he isn´t getting bored.

SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

Several animals are treated or given special treatment (e.g. milk and vitamins for all baby monkeys) on a daily basis from out of our Hospital. In this section we mention some of the more special cases.

Koki (male baby woolly monkey)

Koki
Koki


Last Friday Koki arrived to Esperanza Verde. He was kept as a pet in the nearby village Bello Horizonte and one of the workers brought him here. At the moment Koki stays at the clinic for a couple of weeks, this way we can have an eye on him and make sure he is doing fine.

Lulu (female two-toed sloth)

Lulu
Lulu

After Lulu´s growth spurt last month she doesn’t seem to have stopped growing. She eats better and better every day and is starting to drink less milk. She is climbing faster and more confidently than last month and eating lots of leaves at the same time. Also, she has been getting a lot more playful. Now we often have to wait for long periods of time besides a tree whilst she plays, the same as with Wallace.

Chipi (male ruddy ground dove)

One morning Geiler arrived carrying a small box with two chicks that one of Kayla´s friends had given him. One had a broken leg which we taped to its chest in hopes that it would heal properly. We still had hope for three days but eventually the chick died. The other chick, now named Chipi, had more luck and spent its first few nights in the room of Laura, a Dutch volunteer, so she could keep her eyes on him during night. After that Chipi moved up to the clinic where he now is doing well!

Frederick (white-winged parakeet)

The parakeet that arrived in the clinic last month because of a wound on his chest was eventually named Frederick. His wound is all healed and last week we brought him to the Casa cage, where we keep our resident parakeets or parakeets that for some reason can´t be released at the moment. Our hopes are that he will soon be able to rejoin the other parakeets in Pepe cage.

Soraya (young female prehensile-tailed porcupine)

Soraya has a small wound on her left foot, which we´re taking care of. Giving her a bigger cage with a dirt floor instead of a cement floor will help the healing of her foot and overall Soraya is doing great. So, that means she moved out to a new cage away from the clinic. She still gets vitamines from the SUST Animal Orphan Hospital and hopefully she will recover quick from her wound. Right now we´re busy trying to figuring out what kind of species she exactly is. Soon as we get the results back, we will let you know!

Construction

General Maintenance

Last month the volunteers have shown great initiative by doing construction on all of the paths at Esperanza Verde. Carrying stones to make wet parts easier to walk over, adding steps where needed and rack all the paths. Also a new bridge was made from the family house to the kinkajou cage and the new guest house. A special thanks to our Dutch volunteer Kees!

New guest house

The building of the new guest house is going fast and it looks already very nice with a small veranda at the front side. The floor is finished and the workers are now busy with the kitchen and the bathroom. Douwe and Geiler are doing a great job here!

Volunteers

Machico took some of the volunteers to another forest walk. Together with his machete he cleared the paths for them and they really enjoyed the four hour walk. Also Kayla is often taking some volunteers out during the evening to catch shrimps and crabs in the river. Because of El Nino we had some troubles with our food supply, because Pucallpa was hard to reach. We were low on fresh vegetables but luckily we had enough other things. Every night the volunteers put together a very creative and delicious meal and we weren’t hungry at all. Raining season is almost over, so that means we can build a bonfire more often. The best way to end a working day!

Esperanza Verde Update / February 2017

The last three weeks here have brought a lot of changes with new animals and volunteers arriving. At the beginning of the month three new animals were brought here: a juvenile giant anteater (released a day after arrival), a tamandua and a baby howler monkey. Most of the volunteers who were with us over New Years have now left and a stream of new volunteers have arrived. We now have a big group again which means plenty of helping hands and time to do extra jobs such as carrying sand bags and bricks for the storage building and guest cabin.

Monkeys

Wallace (male baby red howler monkey)

Wallace
Wallace

One of the new arrivals is Wallace, our 4 month old red howler monkey. When Wallace arrived he was in a good condition and he was, and still is, very active. Since he is still very vulnerable as a baby he stays with the family during the night and several long-term volunteers take turns “babysitting” him during the day. Taking care of him is a full time job as he gets milk several times a day and eats all through the day, often together with Lulu. Then, as a healthy young animal should, he loves to climb and play. Of course he has stolen everyone´s heart so finding volunteers to look after him is never a problem.

Willow and Samara (male woolly monkey and young female woolly monkey)

After spending several weeks in the La Sapa cage Willow and Samara are now back outside with the other monkeys. Even with necessary precautions they managed to escape, most likely aided by our adult capuchin monkey Mica who can open lots of different locks. Both are happy to be back outside and for now we have decided to leave them outside. Willow was very excited the first week but has calmed down now and at least for now he seems to keep more of a distance from the volunteers. Making the decision to enclose them in a cage was hard and seeing them outside again makes us all happy. It is especially nice to see how caring Willow is for the younger monkeys and he takes a lot of time to play with them.

Spider monkeys (males Rimaq and Lucio, female Yanay)

Yanay, who was released last month, is still enjoying her freedom and carrying Lupa (young female woolly) and Pashko (young male woolly). She has also taken up her habit of following on the Zambo walks again. She loves observing everyone and playing peek-a-boo with people.

Squirrel monkeys

Both Silvana and Camila´s babies seem to be doing well. Camila we spot on a daily basis but Silvana not as often. Camilla´s baby keeps growing and sometimes she is brave enough to leave the back of her mum to enjoy being with the other adult monkeys including the capuchins. We are yet to see what the sex is but everyone is patiently waiting! The guess so far is it being a male!

Other Mammals

Tamana (juvenile female Tamandua)

Tamandua
Tamana

One of the new arrivals is Tamana, the young female tree anteater. She is very friendly and in good health. We find termite nests for her every day which she gets once or twice a day. For now she is enjoying her time in the Araña cage waiting for her official release back in the jungle.

Kiko and Kila (male and female kinkajou)

At the beginning of the month we were about to release Kiko and Kila again after Kiko recovered from his wounds after another fight. However Douwe noticed that Kila had two fungus spots, one on her foot and one next to her eye. Since she needs treatment for it we were forced to keep them enclosed for a bit longer. Hopefully she will recover quickly and we can let them out of their enclosure again.

Zambo (male tayra)

At the beginning of the month we had a very different Zambo from the usual hyperactive and happy tayra that we are used to. He felt ill for about a week, not wanting to eat or move much. We still tried taking him on short walks twice a day and he did want to go although he would just walk beside or behind you on the path without exploring much or being difficult in any way. As Zambo is very loved by all the volunteers we were all happy when he started being difficult again which basically meant that he was back to normal. He is now again very happy and energetic.

Birds

Rhaegar & Daenerys (male and female mealy amazon parrots)

Rheagar is still loving being in the clinic where he gets lots of attention and has lots of people to talk to all day long. Some volunteers have been taking phones and iPods into the clinic to play music for him; he seems to particularly like the soundtrack of The Lion King. Several weeks ago he got several beautiful new (short) tail feathers. We took Daenerys from the Pichu cage to the clinic to check how she was doing and she has gotten a clean bill of health. Rhaegar has some parasites and is being treated for them now. Once he is clean too we will move both of them into the Igor cage with the remaining parakeets. We hope that they will become a close couple so we can eventually move them back to the Pichu cage.

Parakeets

After several weeks of opening and closing the hatch in the Igor cage every day most of the birds have now left the cage. Sadly two birds died by unknown causes. Another parakeet moved into the clinic because of a wound on its chest from falling on the ground (this one can´t fly). The others are doing well though and will soon be joined by Rhaegar and Daenerys.

Rosalinda (swallow-wing)

Sadly Rosalinda died at the beginning of the month. We all miss her as taking care of her was a big part of the day whilst doing Zambo tour. We hand fed her multiple times a day and caught fresh crickets for her every day.

SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

Several animals are treated or given special treatment (e.g. milk and vitamins for all baby monkeys) on a daily basis from out of our Hospital. In this section we mention some of the more special cases.

Khali (young male brown capuchin)

Khali, who had a wound and two small spots on his side from worms or botflies, is now all better. The antibiotics did their work and luckily he has been fine for several weeks now.

Sira (female nightmonkey)

Sira
Sira

Sira is doing well too and is usually seen on our kitchen window during the morning which is our cue to go outside and bring her back to her cage for the day. The weight loss she experienced some time ago is slowly coming back with the special vitamin mix she receives on a daily basis.

Ossi (young male olingo)

Ossi
Ossi

Ossi, who arrived here last month has been doing well and is growing slowly. We introduced him to Roko cage where also Sira, our night monkey lives during the day in the front cage (at night she is able to go out by herself). They are living in different compartments of the cage but we hope they enjoy their neighbourship. Ossi was quick in exploring his new cage and now seems to enjoy it.

Soraya (young female prehensile-tailed porcupine)

Soraya, was brought to the clinic to receive a more intense treatment and to make sure she eats enough. In the clinic she can be checked regularly, including a feces check-up. During one of those check-ups we found out she had a problem with lice, not easy to get them out from between the quails! We found out which treatment would work most and after several week got rid of them all. The main reason she is in the clinic was because of her weight. We are now almost certain that she is not actually the type of porcupine that we thought and that she is just a smaller species and therefore is not gaining weight. Now we know this we are trying to decide what to do with her, hopefully she can go back outside soon.

Lulu (female two-toed sloth)

Lulu climbing
Lulu climbing

Lulu is doing really well; she started eating more raw vegetables (instead of steamed) and enjoys her walks every day. And she seems to have a growth spurt at the moment! Over the last few weeks we have tried to get her more comfortable being near trees and after several days of smelling and licking them she made some attempts to climb them. She started by grabbing a tree with one arm and then quickly letting go again, one turned into two and eventually she let go and started climbing by herself. Since then she has been very eager to climb and she constantly looks around during the walk and reaches out her hand more quickly. Now the volunteers have a hard time getting her back down!

Rabito (adult male deer)

Rabito is still living in the garden area of the clinic. He looks much better than when he arrived but the skin problem keeps coming back. It seems to be caused by a fungus, and luckily is not affecting any other animals or humans. We are in contact with our network of veterinarians to find the best solution. At the moment we are treating him with an anti-fungus shampoo which, instead of spraying on him, we now rub into his skin with a sponge, and he likes it way better! We hope to see results soon.

Parakeet

The parakeet that was brought into the clinic from the Pepe cage is treated with a cream on his chest every day. We hope he recovers quickly so he can move back into the Pepe cage with the others.

Construction

The Zambo path which needed improvement was finished this month, just before more heavy rainfall. It was finished just in time and walking to the cage has become much easier.

The work on the quest house and storage building is progressing. As we are now in full rain season work gets a bit harder and maintenance of paths more important. Water always finds a way to keep us busy!

We are happy that with all this rain we have hardly any problems with our water supply, and can shower freely at the hose again.

Volunteers

This month has seen a lot of volunteers leave and new ones arrive. We have a lot of new volunteers arriving again over the next few weeks. Alex came back a couple of weeks ago after a nice holiday and jumped right back into her assistant manager duties. This month there were two Regalia visits. During the first one the weather was perfect, it was warm and sunny. During the second visit we were not as lucky as it was not as warm and rain started pouring down at the end of the morning. Machico took the volunteers on another nice forest walk where they saw squirrel monkeys, tarantulas, a vine snake and a lot of other small animals. They also came across tracks of different animals and found a tree porcupine nest by following the familiar sour smell that we all know from Soraya. All in all it´s been another eventful month as Esperanza Verde.

Esperanza Verde Update / 20.12.16 – 31.01.17

A new year has started and as usual a lot has happened at Esperanza Verde! Besides celebrating a wonderful Christmas, New Years Eve and various birthdays, we also welcomed some new animals: two newborn baby squirrel monkeys and a baby olingo called Ossi. A lot of work has been done on the cages, Willow and Samara moved into the La Sapa enclosure together and the parakeets were moved to the Pepe cage. The construction of two new buildings has started: a storage building and a guest cabin.

After that great start of the New Year we hope for a lucky and exciting 2017.

Monkeys

Willow and Samara (male woolly monkey and young female woolly monkey)

Willow
Willow

Unfortunately, but for the safety of the people living and working here, Willow had to be enclosed in the La Sapa cage. After some warnings and an actual bite (luckily not too severe) we had to make this decision. Douwe prepared the cage with the help of the volunteers and added some nice enrichment to provide Willow with a range of opportunities to play and to be entertained. However it was a tough day for all, as we had hopes this day would somehow never come. After several days he was joined by Samara so he won´t become lonely. Both are doing well and we are looking for other solutions in the future, but for now we will have to keep them inside and provide them with enough stimuli, like enrichment, and hope they will adapt well. Kamari for now seems to stay on a distance, and still takes care of the group outside.

 

Spider monkeys (males Rimaq and Lucio, female Yanay)

Yanay was released about a week ago after spending some time with the males in the cage. None of them have given an indication that there has been any romance between them so we are not very hopeful that she is pregnant but we will have to see. Now at least she is enjoying being outside again where she can spend time with the other monkeys and observe everything that is going on in the area. She took up carrying Lupa (young female woolly) again and also takes turns carrying Pashko (young male woolly) with Kamari

 

Squirrel monkeys

camila with baby
camila with baby

Silvana, one of the several released squirrel monkeys 2 years ago, gave birth, and shortly after it was Camila´s turn. Both happened around Christmas time! We are all really happy that the babies seem to be healthy and doing well. Especially Camila´s as this is her first and she was raised her in Esperanza Verde. We spot her several times a day around the volunteers´ kitchen so she is easy to keep an eye on.

Other Mammals

Timo (young male collared peccary)

Quintisha and Timo
Quintisha and Timo

Timo has moved in with Kohana and Quintisha in the Xena cage. They are getting along with each other pretty well. After some time receiving his own separate food in smaller pieces he now really joined the grown-ups and is eating together with the females. He still can whine sometimes when Douwe or Olivia pass by but this also will soon pass. We are happy the female take such good care of him.

 

Takari (adult male paka)

We are very sad that Takira, who we´ve had for about a year, escaped. He loves to dig and we´d spend some time every couple of days filling up the holes that he had dug along the fence. We are not sad because he might not survive, but more that he was a very nice animal to have around. We knew this would be possible within this enclosure, therefore we chose it, so he could decide himself if he would want to go or not. At one day he did not return and we left the hole he dug and the door open, but we suppose he found himself a better, less disturbed area (by monkeys!) to rest during day. We just hope he stay close to the heart of Esperanza Verde so he won’t encounter human-hunters.

 

Kiko and Kila (male and female kinkajou)

However friendly Kiko is to us and his female companion he doesn´t seem to be able to stop the wild male outside from getting to him. After two months without any trouble, they were even all three close together without a fight, something happened again. Again he got bitten in his face, this time he ended up with a puncture wound on his nose, which gave him some trouble breathing normally. We closed him in together with Kila and started him on antibiotics. He is fine now and we will try again!

 

Zambo (male tayra)

Zambo in the first month at EV
Zambo in the first month at EV

 

Zambo now
Zambo now

Zambo is back to his old self after losing a claw and some trouble with his leg. He is enjoying his new cage which has been given a lot of nice enrichment and decorations. Volunteers continue to give him further enrichment by changing things in his cage every couple of days. He loves the rotting pieces of wood and big palm leaves that are regularly put in his cage. He is at times still difficult on walks, but he is still young and we have hopes he will adapt fine. Together with the volunteers who walk him on daily basis we regularly talk about his development and behavior and we all learn how smart little Zambo is. He had a long way from the tiny, very sick tayra on arrival to the beautiful animal he has become now!

Birds

 

Aratingas

The Aratingas in the Aviary cage finally have been caught in an adventurous night-operation with the help of the volunteers and were moved to the Igor Cage, ready for release.

 

Parakeets

After last month´s release we separated the left parakeets again in flyers and non-flyers and moved the non-flyers to the Pepe Cage to provide them with more space. The flyers moved in with the aratingas in the IGOR cage. After a week of observing the flyers carefully we deemed them fit to be released and started opening the hatch in their cage during the day which we still do every day and will continue to do until they all leave the cage. For the ones who remember him, Pichu, the aratinga, he is still with us. His feathers seem to grow normal finally, but he still is not able to fly sufficiently.

 

Rhaegar (male mealy amazon parrot)

Rheagar moved up in the clinic after being found with a bloody tail. He mostly likely was harassed by one or more of the others. He is doing fine and rehabs quite well. He loves all of the attention he gets here and the hustle and bustle of people walking past all day long. He has also picked up quite a few new words in several different languages. His feces was checked and he is putting on weight, but we will keep him for a bit longer to decide what would be the best to do further.

 

Pauki (russet-backed oropendola)

Pauki back
Pauki back

Happily we can announce that we saw Pauki again. He looked healthy and is doing well. He just showed up for several days, and Olivia even got to weigh him, all good!

SUST Animal Orphan Hospital

 

Several animals are treated or given special treatment (e.g. milk and vitamins for all baby monkeys) on a daily basis from out of our Hospital. In this section we mention some of the more special cases.

 

Khali (young male brown capuchin)

Kayla noticed that Khali had a wound on his side. It seems it was from a worm of a botfly which got infected. Mostly likely other monkeys already got the worm out but instead some bacteria’s went in. With antibiotics and local cleaning after almost two weeks of daily care it healed nicely, except for a new worm popping up. It is rain season and these botflies often appear more at this time.

 

Sira (female nightmonkey)

Sira is doing well too and is usually seen on our kitchen window during the morning which is our cue to go outside and bring her back to her cage for the day. The weight loss she experienced some time ago is slowly coming back with the special vitamin mix she receives on a daily basis.

 

Ossi (young male olingo)

A new animal joined the Esperanza Verde family in the hospital: Ossi, the young olingo. He was handed over by a local man who found him lying on the floor crying, when he was walking home from his plantation through the forest. After a few weeks of living in the manager´s house he finally moved up to the clinic where he will receive his vitamins and will be raised there until he hopefully can be released.

 

Soraya (young female prehensile-tailed porcupine)

Soraya, was brought to the clinic to receive a more intense treatment and to make sure she eats enough. In the clinic she can be checked regularly, including a feces check-up. During one of those check-ups we found out she had a problem with lice, not easy to get them out from between the quails! We found out which treatment would work most and after several week got rid of them all. We just hope she finally gain some significant weight, it is about time!

 

Lulu (female two-toed sloth)

Lulu two toed sloth
Lulu two toed sloth

Lulu is doing really well, she started eating more raw food and enjoys her walks every day. And she seems to have a growing spurt at the moment!

 

Rabito (adult male deer)

Rabito is still doing in the garden area of the clinic. He looks so much better than at his arrival, but the skin problems keeps coming back. It seems to be caused by a fungus, and luckily is not affecting any other animals or humans. But treating him locally is not possible, as he will never be still enough to treat his whole body. We are in contact with our network of veterinarians to find the best solution.

 

Construction

 

Zambo Path

The volunteers started to improve the path towards the newly constructed Zambo cage so access is now much easier. It took already some sweat and tears carrying all those stones, pebbles and sand! Thank you all.

 

New storage building

Douwe and the workers started building a new building for storage of food and a special compartment for tools near to the volunteer kitchen. This will create more living space for volunteers and it will provide a more adequate storage of fresh vegetables and fruit as well as other items.

The tools which are for now stored also in the volunteer kitchen will get their own room where they all can be organized neatly.

 

Guest Cabin

We started we the guest house, so we can give special short-time visitors, as veterinarians, researchers, people from the Ministry among others, their own accommodation.

 

Volunteers

A lot happened during the last weeks. After days of heavy rain, the river went almost up to the volunteer’s house and everyone helped to remove wood and other construction material from underneath the house to save it from the coming flood. The volunteers enjoyed a great night walk again with Douwe where they spotted various animals and Douwe found another wild caiman. One of our long- term volunteers, Sean, also took everyone on several shorter night walks where they spotted some night monkeys. The volunteers also spent a few nice bonfire nights, celebrating a wonderful Christmas together with the family and an exciting New Years Eve. Firework was lit at the port and thanks to our musically talented volunteer Kars we sang and played guitar at the bonfire.  Furthermore we celebrated the birthdays of various volunteers such as Alex, our long-term volunteer, who we sadly had to say goodbye to on the 11th of January. Alex will luckily come back at the beginning of February to stay for several months and we are looking forward to greeting her again.

Holly, our artistic volunteer with a talent for painting started a wonderful artwork of Lulu on the bathroom door in the volunteer’s house. Unfortunately she didn´t get to finish it before she left but that is all the more reason for her to come back.

 

 

We wish you all a very happy new year!