Esperanza Verde Update / 03.11.16 – 24.11.16

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

The swedish visit
The swedish visit

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

The full door completed !
The full door completed !

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

Monkeys

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

Saddleback tamarins (wild group)

tamarin-baby

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

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

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

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

Other Mammals

Baby collared peccary (male Timo)

Tara & Timo
Tara & Timo
Timo getting fed
Timo getting fed

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

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

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

Birds

Parakeets

Parakeets released
Parakeets released

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

Clinic

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

Construction

Zambo Cage

New Zambo Cage
New Zambo Cage

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

Storage-building

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

Enrichment

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

Volunteers

At Regalia waterfall
At Regalia waterfall

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

Night discovery
Night discovery

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

The birthday bonefire
The birthday bonfire

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

Esperanza Verde Update / 13.10.16 – 03.11.16

As always it has been busy three weeks here at Esperanza Verde. We had a visit from Kayla’s classmates who were given a tour by Douwe, the 107 parakeets were divided into flyers and non-flyers and we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Dali, one of our festive amazons who was found dead by a volunteer.

But volunteers also have had a great time going to the bigger waterfall Regalia and celebrating Halloween jungle style!

Monkeys

Panchita (female capuchin monkey)

Panchita still hasn’t been seen. We have a tiny hope that she found a wild capuchin group she was able to join and that she is doing fine in the jungle. We never give up hope, as animals can always surprise you!

Saddleback tamarins (wild group)

baby tamarin
baby tamarin

We are happy to announce that there has been a new addition to the wild group of tamarins that hang around Esperanza Verde, one of the females has a new baby which seems to be doing well and is seen regularly as they feed from the monkey-food tables.

Other Mammals

Baby collared peccary (male Timo)

Timo
Timo

Some people from a nearby village came over one day with a week old peccary. He got the name Timo and now lives with Olivia, Douwe and the kids. Timo needs looking after all day around as he needs to be fed milk regularly since he drinks every three hours, even at night!

Coatis (Male Vasari & females Nola and Chuni)

The coati group is still together. Vasari, Nola & Chuni are doing fine with the other coatis. They have been out exploring the jungle here and have been seen up at the Mirador together. All of them are growing up and establishing their place in the group.

Kinkajous (male Kiko & female Kila)

After releasing the both kinkajous for the second time Kiko was sadly enough once again in a fight with a wild adult kinkajou male. Olivia and Douwe rescued him from the river and Kiko & Kila are now back in Tiliku cage again. He has a small wound on the side of his left eye but nothing too serious. Until the eye is fully healed they will be back in their cage still with the hopes that they will be successfully released in the future.

Paca (male Takiri)

Takiri, who came to us in the beginning of the year after being confiscated by the ministry, has now been moved to the Momo-cage (the enclosure surrounding the cabin). He spent his first few nights in the cage under the cabin (old office now used to house long term volunteers) but is now free roaming around the enclosure at night time. Before the big move he was also weighed and chipped which went unexpectedly well for both Douwe and Takiri.

Birds

Parakeets (100 white-winged parakeets, 5 cobalt-winged parakeets, 1 tui parakeet, 3 white-eyed parakeets (aratingas) & 1 blue headed parrot)

With boxes and gloves Olivia and 3 volunteers managed to get a look at all the parakeets very up-close! All of them and the blue headed parrot Dario in the enclosure were caught by hand and given medication against parasites. The birds were checked to make sure that nothing was wrong and that their feathers were good before being sorted into flyers and non flyers.

The flying group is now residing in Igor cage where they are waiting to be released and the non-flyers are in Araña cage.

Baby cobalt-winged parakeets (Luke, Jack, Everell, William & Joe also called Luke and the Daltons)

The Daltons grew up and got moved to Pepe cage together with the other parakeets. They were also caught and given medicine and even though they are all good flyers we put them with the non flyers since they are yet too tame after being hand-fed by us. We are hoping that living together with the other parakeets will teach them to become afraid of us humans so they also in the future can be released. This day they had their first lesson, as they did not enjoy being caught!

Rosalinda, (swallow-wing), Picor & Ocor, Kojac, Cloa & Tony (White-winged parakeets)

These six birds are living together in Casa cage. Rosalinda, the swallow wing, must be fed by hand. Volunteers daily catch crickets for her up at the plantation and a few times a day we feed her a mix of egg, bread and cat food. A nice task to do! The other parakeets that are in the cage with her are either to tame to ever be released again or are having medical problems which disables them from being released (e.g. Picor with a broken beak). In future we will be needing a permanent enclosure for these kind of birds.

Dali (festive-amazon)

Dali
Dali

Dali was found dead one morning after a very unlucky accident. A few of the macaws were playing around on a big branch, which unfortunately came down from the ceiling. The branch fell down on Dali who was one of the tamer birds in the aviary. Kipa, another festive amazon and partner of Dali, is now alone but coping and has been seen eating from the tables. But both Kipa and the volunteers miss Dali who frequently used to go on the volunteers hands and play around while working in the cage.

Reptiles

Marie-Antoinette (Yellow-footed tortoise)

After being in the clinic for some time for treatment of parasites, she was healthy enough to be released. Two volunteers took her out into the forest and she is now out in the wild enjoying her freedom again!

Yellow footed tortoises in reptile cage

Esperanza Verde got help from the classmates of Kayla to find almost all of the eighteen tortoises in reptile cage for their monthly check up. One was found with a fungus problem and got moved to the clinic for the treatment. One tortoise was not found but we are still keeping an eye out for him and waiting patiently.

Construction

Zambo Cage

Zambo cage construction
Zambo cage construction

The construction of the new Zambo cage is going well. The iron structure of the cage is now done. Next up is the cement flooring. The cement and sand needed to build this new floor was carried up from the port by a few brave volunteers, after a lot of sweat the materials needed to complete the flooring were finally ready to be mixed, poured and set.

Volunteers

Regalia waterfall trip
Regalia waterfall trip

The volunteers went on a trip to the Regalia waterfall. Most of them getting very sun burnt but a great day out none the less.

And how creative people can become in the jungle!

Halloween dinner
Halloween dinner

We celebrated Halloween with candy and a bonfire and of course we were all dressed up. At the side of the bonfire we had a Shrek with celery as ears, a Jane with earrings from leaves, a Tarzan with a skirt from palm leaves and a batman with wings made out of a garbage bag. The volunteers also got visited by captain hook and his companion (a.k.a. Douwe and Marlon) plus the lovely nobility Kayla.

We all had a great time and are now looking forward to Sint Nicholas!

Diverse

Olivia with Kayla's class
Olivia with Kayla’s class
Douwe with kayla's class
Douwe with Kayla’s class

We also got visited by Kaylas classmates and their teacher who went over here on a field trip. Douwe took them all around Esperanza Verde to explain about the animals and we even got a hand in the finding our tortoises! Olivia gave them a tour in our clinic and let them look at poo samples with the microscope. We hope that the visit helps the children to understand more about the wildlife in this part of Peru.

Esperanza Verde Update / 23.09.16 – 16.10.16

Rain season has now started which means we get rain daily and a lot of happy volunteers since doing laundry in the river is no longer necessary!

It also means the forest is blooming again which is both enjoyed by volunteers and animals when it comes to the daily leaf picking. But rain is not the only thing that have happened here at Esperanza Verde, our spider monkeys Lucio & Rimaq have finally gotten to enjoy their new cage, we´ve had a release of the female capuchin Panchita and much more!

Monkeys

Samara & Pashko (baby female and male woolly monkeys)

Pashko on Willow
Pashko on Willow

Two weeks ago we opened up Lucia cage and after a few minutes they both came outside and started to explore the surroundings. They both still get milk three times a day with the other baby monkeys and food from a plate. Both are often seen playing with the other monkeys and Willow has taken on the responsibility of looking after Pashko.

Chiquita & Lupa (baby female woolly monkeys), Khali & Cinty (baby male and female capuchin monkeys)

Khali is now a big boy and sleeps outside the entire night. It took some hard work and determination from the volunteers but now he finally goes up in a tree with the other monkeys to sleep. All of our baby monkeys are getting along well with our new baby woolly monkeys.

Sira (female night-monkey)

Since a week ago Sira has been outside for the entire night and let back into her cage in the morning. She is becoming a big girl and she loves jumping from tree to tree and just playing around. A few days ago we moved her sleeping box outside, so she can now choose when to go in and out. She loves her new “five star luxury hotel”! She still gets milk once a day before sunset and a plate of food next to the box when it gets dark.

Chaira (female capuchin monkey)

A week ago Chaira was found with a big mass on her right chest. Douwe, the visiting veterinarian, Karl, and Olivia took a look at her and it turned out to be a hematoma. She was kept in the clinic for a week for observation but her wound looks a lot better so a few days later she could be let out again to join the rest.

Panchita (female capuchin monkey)

Panchita
Panchita

Panchita has now been released and the first few days she was seen a lot around Olivia and Douwes house, playing with the laundry. She also paid a visit to the volunteer house and seemed to be coping good with outside life. Unfortunately she has not been seen for a few days now. Not all releases always go that smoothly, and for a monkey which was raised with humans only for her first 6 years of life, it can be a hard change! We do hope she will soon turn up again.

Rimaq & Lucio (spider monkeys)

carrying rimaq into his cage
carrying rimaq into his cage
Douwe walking Lucio
Douwe walking Lucio

They have now moved to their new cage named Rimaq. It took a few days before they were comfortable with all the new changes. But now they both enjoy their big, new cage and can be seen playing a lot with their new toys.

Other Mammals

Young coatis (male Vasari & females Nola and Chuni)

coati babies climbing
coati babies climbing

A week ago we moved the coati babies to La Sapa cage (where our male spider monkeys used to stay) to prepare them for the outside world. A few days after we decided to put in one of the already adult female coatis (Saya), that way the babies get a chance to be introduced to the group. We often saw them playing together or cuddling in their box. After some more days we we opened the release hatch and Vasari, Nola & Chuni have now joined the coati group and are seen following Saya around.

Kinkajous (male Kiko & female Kila)

Sadly Kiko was attacked again the wild kinkajou male, and again bitten in his face, this time his nose. So they are now again back in their cage and Kikos wounds are healing well. We still hope that we soon can release them once again so they can enjoy the free life in the lush jungle. We haven’t given up trying.

Birds

Baby cobalt-winged parakeets (Luke, Jack, Everell, William & Joe also called Luke and the Daltons)

Luke and the daltons parakeets
Luke and the daltons parakeets

Luke and the Daltons are growing up fast. They now eat only solid food and a few days ago they moved from the clinic into Pepe cage and joined the other parakeets. We hope they will learn from the other parakeets and become warry enough again so they might have a change for release in the future.

Rosalinda, (swallow-wing), Picor & Ocor (White-winged parakeets)

Rosalinda has now moved out of the clinic into Casa cage, where she has company from Picor & Ocor, our two permanent residents parakeets. They seem to enjoy the new bigger space and they get along really good. Volunteers still help out with catching crickets and grasshoppers for Rosalinda.

Churi (Many-banded aracari)

Churi is now back in his old cage, he didn’t find the Casa cage to interesting and was somewhat unhappy so we decided to move him back to his old cage, Lucia. Now he is making his happy sounds again every time a volunteer walks by or just goes into his cage to give him a few minutes of company.

Reptiles

Marie-Antoinette (Yellow-footed tortoise)

A friend of Kayla found this 3 kg female totoise and turned her over to us. She is now residing up in the clinic. Parasites were found in her poop and she is now getting treatment. Hopefully she can soon be released again.

Construction

Zambo Cage

The construction of the new Zambo cage has started and we hope to finish it as soon as possible so Zambo can move outside and enjoy a bigger cage surrounded by the jungle. It will make it easier to take him on his daily walks, as leashing him to take him out of the clinic is turning out to be a big game for him on some days.

Volunteers

The last two weeks the volunteers have done two forest walks with Machico which is always a nice experience for them. They learn a lot about the jungle; trees, plants and some animals.

cayman
cayman

Our volunteers have also done a night walk with Douwe where they for example saw a caiman, scorpions, water snakes and a lot of fishes and spiders.

Our volunteer group is also growing which means more people for card games in the afternoon and new stories to be told.

Rabito castration
Rabito castration

One of our volunteers was accompanied by her father, Karl Nuss, who is a Professor and Veterinarian. He was here for a few days and helped us out in the clinic with the castration of Rabito our Red Brocket deer and one of Kaylas rabbits. We appreciate his help and are grateful for the knowledge he brought.

Esperanza Verde Update / 16.08.16 – 23.09.16

Rain season is slowly arriving and the jungle is once again starting to look like the lush forest it is supposed to be. We have welcomed the arrival of two new baby wooly monkeys, a baby sloth, a capuchin and not less than five baby parakeets! And even though at the time writing the volunteer crew is not in its full power, we have got a strong group of eight people while we await new ones to arrive.

Monkeys

Panchita (female capuchin monkey)

Panchita moved outside cage

Panchita is 4 to 5 years old (a bit younger than Mica). She was handed over to the ministry by her owner who had kept her as a pet. She was first a he and was called Pansho by her former owner. Coming here we soon discovered this was not the case, therefore we renamed her.

Panchita spent her quarantine time in the clinic and was in the beginning quite alone with no visits from other capuchins but eventually our older male Jordi has been seen by her cage. She has now been moved to Igor cage outside where we hope she will create a connection with more of the other capuchins. Having older individuals become a part of an already functioning group is sometimes hard, but we are hoping that the visits from Jordi are a positive sign and that she will be accepted. Let’s hope she does not find our kitchen more interesting.

Samara & Pashko (baby female and male woolly monkeys)

samarapashko-in-new-cage samarapashko-in-new-cage-2

They both arrived together with the two-toed sloth Lulu from the ministry. They were held in the clinic here at Esperanza Verde during their quarantine period but have now moved to a cage outside and are daily visited by our older male wooly monkeys Kamari & Willow among others. In the coming weeks we will open the door and see how they will do outside.

Chiquita & Lupa (baby female woolly monkeys), Khali & Cinty (baby male and female capuchin monkeys)

cinty

Our other baby monkeys are starting to grow up! They are still being fed milk and food from a plate but all of them are also enjoying the feast at the monkey tables, even Khali!. Cinty one day was discovered with a cut on her forearm and limping so she got checked by Olivia (‘her best friend’) and Douwe and deemed good enough to take care of it herself, which she has and we can now see her wound healing back.

Sira (female night-monkey)

sira-in-her-new-box

Sira is more and more enjoying life outside the cage as we now encourage her to play more with the other monkeys and stay out longer. Still on occasion she sits on volunteer’s heads but their determination to not let her has helped and she is now much more eager to be in the trees. A volunteer has been working on a box that has gotten introduced to her inside of her cage. The thought is that this box will be her sleeping box during the day when she is released outside.

Other Mammals

Soraya

soraya-at-arrival

With all the stuff going on and the family away we have forgotten to mention one of the special arrivals in the last month, a young female prehensile-tailed porcupine, Soraya. She was found by a local on the beach while a bird of prey was trying to take her away. He handed her to us. She arrived with a lame right hind leg with no outside injury seeable. We treated her and hoped, and it worked, although it took some weeks, but she started climbing again. We could move her after about 4 weeks to a bigger cage for more exercise and after some weeks she was using her leg like normal again. She now has a good chance of release as soon as has grown a bit more and has adapted well to the surroundings.

Baby two-toed Hoffman sloth (Lulu)

lulu-in-the-clinic lulu-going-for-a-walk

Lulu was brought to us by the ministry together with the two baby wooly monkeys Samara & Pashko. She is still being fed milk by the bottle and volunteers take her at least twice a day on leaf walks, that way she can decide herself which leafs she enjoys!

Coatis (Male Vasari & females Nola and Chuni)

babycoatis-in-clinic

The coati babies who had a mother that was most likely killed by a local dog are growing bigger and bigger every day! They are starting to eat more solid food and are quite enjoying the variety of food they are being offered since we want to find out what they like. We are soon hoping to put them in an outside cage where they can socialize more with the other coatis and become a part of the group.

Kinkajous (male Kiko & female Kila)

kiko-and-kila-outside

Kiko who earlier this year was attacked by a wild male kinkajou and who we feared would never be able to use his left eye again, got back in his cage to heal. During his healing he got introduced to Kila who was brought in from the village. Everyone is now happy to see that Kiko is able to use his eye and he is getting along well with Kila.

kiko-outside

About a week ago we opened the hatch to their cage and they both happily went up in the trees. Kila has been seen by Olivia and Douwe a few days after and Kiko has been found sleeping in his old box on one occasion. He is regularly spotted over at the house of Douwe and Olivia.

Birds

Baby cobalt-winged parakeets

baby_parakeets babyparakeets-feeding

parakeets-gettting-more-independent

Five baby-parakeets, so far nameless, so if you have suggestions let us know! They all arrived from the Ministry, on the same day as capuchin Panchita. Two volunteers who were spending some days in Pucallpa picked them up. They are at the moment in the clinic, and at first received very intensive feeding, being syringe fed every 2-3 hours. But within two weeks they already started to climb out of the home-made nest and now they are in a bigger cage, with two of the five already starting to fly. Everybody involved, and there were and are many, did a great job! We hope that they will start eating more solids food in the near future and hopefully we can introduce them with the other birds.

Rosalinda, a swallow-wing

rosalinda-swallow-wing

One day a young girl came to Kayla to ask her to take care of a little black bird, as her brother wanted to steel it to go fishing with it as bait. This is the story of how Rosalinda, a young swallow-wing arrived in Esperanza Verde. She was a pet for at least a week and very tame. She eats well, and we have introduced the daily task again of catching grasshoppers or crickets for her. She is residing in a small cage in the office in the clinic for now.

Mealy Amazon parrot (Rhaegar)

arrival-of-rhaegar-in-aviary dany-and-rhaegar-in-aviary

Rhaegar was handed over to us by a local from Curimana who kept him as a pet. After the initial quarantine period, and some necessary baths (he was kept in a hardware store, so a bit oily!), he was put into Igor cage together with our other Mealy Amazon Daenarys. They soon became friends and got moved to the aviary where Daenarys had stayed before Igor cage. In the beginning Rheagar got picked on by the other amazons (especially some of the orange-winged parrots) and macaws that also reside within the aviary, but he seems to gain his respect and his doing better and better. He is very talkative and likes to chat with volunteers passing by the aviary!

Shakalaka (Speckled chachalaca)

shakalaka-outside

Shakalaka is her name, and even though she does not look much she is a brave little bird! After a long time being enclosed in the cage next to the volunteer house, she was released during the day for a few hours under the watchful eyes of a volunteer. All went well and we decided to leave her outside for longer on her own and see how it goes. It all went well. She has recently been seen more and more on the monkey tables and has become much more independent. It was decided that she no longer needed to stay in her cage during night so she now roams around freely. She does still stay close and like to follow volunteers around, during the evening she can be heard communicating with other chachalaca in the nearby area.

Pauki (Russet/backed oropendola)

Pauki, our ‘house’ bird so far always showed up around 5pm at the volunteer house, but he seems to have been doing a disappearance act again. Last time he was not seen for two weeks, let see now. We just hope he is doing well, and maybe he finally found a mate among the many wild oropendolas around.

Construction

New Cage for spidermonkeys

new-spidermonkey-cage

inside-of-spidermonkey-cage

testing-the-enrichment

Douwe, with help of the local workers Geiler, Machiko and Gomishu, is finishing the last interior details of the spidermonkey cage so we hope we can move them soon and see how they like the new settings. Just to make sure we had the inside toys tested by some of the volunteers! It can be hard work, but there is a lot of fun in between and acting like monkeys is one of them!

Zambo Cage

New plans are being made again, as necessity always shows us the way. A new area is being cleared up behind the clinic where a cage for our tayra, Zambo, is going to be constructed. The place is further away from the rest of the centre as we don’t want him to comfortable to the direct surrounding of the centre. The cage will be built of strong material so it can be used in the future for other animals as well, which are potentially dangerous for other animals in the centre. The cage will have Zambo’s name, as he will be the first inhabitant. He is ready to go to a bigger space, and move finally out of the clinic. It has been a long and difficult way for him but he has grown into a beautiful young adult tayra, a not so easy one to handly in times!

Volunteers

We all said goodbye to Lauren and Iain, everyone has been really grateful for their help and the knowledge they brought to everyone. They also cooked some bomb pineapple-sweet-chili sauce pasta and brought a lot of laughter in the evenings!

Since then we have had a smaller group of volunteers for a few weeks but that means we are becoming a well worked in group with a mix of long term volunteers and people staying for two-three months. We all enjoy rainy season beginning (which also means mango season is arriving) and being able to wash dishes in the sink again.

We would never be able to run this project without the help from our volunteers and other supporters. Big thanks to everyone who has helped out!

Esperanza Verde Update / 01.07.16 – 16.08.16

It has been a busy month here at Esperanza Verde, so apologies for the late arrival of this update! As always the needs of the animals under our care are the priority and with the arrival of several new ones we have had little time for much else. Having had no significant rainfall in the last 2 months, water is in short supply and trips to the waterfall to shower have become part of the daily routine. Also Olivia, Douwe, Marlon and Kayla went back to Holland all together for the first time in 5 years to visit family and friends. For nearly 3 weeks the volunteers were left in charge, though Machico our head worker kept a close eye on things.

Monkeys

Samara

Samara and Pashko (young female woolly monkey and baby male)

These two are amongst our new arrivals. They were confiscated by the government and currently reside in our clinic under quarantine. Both were very dirty when they arrived so after a quick health check they were given a bath! After much wailing during the process, they were pacified with a warm blanket and hot water bottle.

Chiquita (baby female woolly monkey), Khali & Cinty (baby male and female capuchin monkeys)

All three baby monkeys are enjoying life outside of the cage although Khali still sleeps inside over night alongside Sira. Khali is no longer fed milk from the bottle but is instead given it from bowls like most of the other babies.

Sira (female night-monkey)

Sira stays in the Roko cage and is still fed milk from the bottle. She is let out to play for around an hour each afternoon where she is supervised by the two volunteers on monkey tour. On occasion she can be unwilling to integrate with the other monkeys and stays close to the volunteers. She is most comfortable sitting on people´s heads however we discourage this now by pushing her onto the shoulders. Slowly she is growing in confidence and playing more in the trees.

Lupa (baby female woolly monkey)

Even though Lupa can often be found playing with the other baby monkeys she is becoming more independent. Sometimes she is difficult to locate for feeding as she can often be found with Yanay, our female spider monkey, either at Olivia and Douwe´s house or over by the new spider monkey enclosure. Like all of our monkeys Lupa was orphaned at a young age, but Yanay is trying hard to give her some motherly love and attention.

Xira (female young white-fronted capuchin)

Xira is one of the more independent baby monkeys. Like Lupa she can be difficult to find but for different reasons. She spends a lot more time high up in the trees and only quickly comes down for food and milk. We hope this behavior will rub off on some of the other monkeys!

Other Mammals

Lulu

Lulu (baby two-toed Hoffman sloth)

Although she has only been here just over a week, Lulu has stolen the hearts of everyone. The first few days were tough establishing a feeding a routine but she has taken to life at EV well. Our volunteers bottle feed her milk and take her on walks to find her favourite leaves twice a day.

Baby Coati

Coatis

There are three new coati babies! Sadly the mother, one of our released Coatis, was found dead, probably killed by a dog passing through with a farmer. Without milk the babies would have likely died, so the decision was made to scoop them up and place them under our care. The three babies now reside within the clinic and are being tried on different kinds of food. Their favorite is currently a mashed banana mix with cereals, but we aim to introduce more solid foods into their diet as they grow older. Whilst timid at first they now are more curious and inquisitive in behavior. They love watching people arriving at the clinic but quickly hide when their cage is cleaned. We have high hopes of releasing them back to the group once they can eat solid foods.

Zambo (young male tayra)

Zambo has made a remarkable recovery but still resides in the clinic. The volunteers take him for two walks a day, either to the plantation or the Mirador (view point). He is full of energy and loves to play and attack people´s boots and crocs. We have recently realized his love for playing with water and he now swims in the river and has a water tray in his cage that he loves to play with.

Agoutis, Milo and Chula (young male and female)

The agoutis have been seen on various occasions out of the reptile cage often by the compost heap and by the river towards the waterfall. During the tortoise hunt in the reptile enclosure, Milo had a lot of fun playing hide and seek with the volunteers. Although they were originally in the reptile cage it is clear they can jump the fence when they feel like exploring but still come back for food.

Kila (female kinkajou)

Kila is a new kinkajou that was brought in from the village. At first we were very wary that she would not get along with Kiko, but they were introduced and took to each other instantly. The two can even be seen sleeping together in the same box!

Anteater

Anteater (tamandua)

This month the ministry brought us an anteater. After a quick check up and a few termite nests for food, it was deemed safe to be released. A few days after its arrival we all gathered round to see its release just on the other side of the river behind the volunteer house.

Birds

Parakeets

The parakeets have been separated to distinguish those that can and cannot fly. The ones that could fly have now been released. The remaining 100 parakeets have been moved to the Pepe cage and the Igor cage is currently empty.

Churi (Arasari)

Churi was briefly moved into a cage with the two festive amazon parrots. However after a few days he was attacked and ended up with an injury on his leg leg. Now separated he is recovering nicely, and enjoying the peace and quiet of being in his own cage once again. He is much happier and is back to his energetic and talkative self!

Dario (blue headed parrot)

Dario was found by our cook Elena after she discovered him in her garden. His feathers on his wings have been cut so he was probably caught by someone recently. However he is by no means tame so we assume he wasn’t in captivity for a long time. At first we feared he may be sick due to some wheezing but we later discovered this only occurred when people were nearby and he was stressed.

Rhaegar (mealy amazon parrot)

Rhaegar was rescued from a shop in Curimana. The shop owners, who had him as a pet, gave him up to Douwe when he was purchasing a few supplies. Rhaegar is unfortunately incredibly tame but he loves life in the clinic and all the attention from our volunteers. He is always talking to his visitors and does love to make a mess and chew anything in sight!

Great Egret

The Great Egret has officially been released! After some medication and brief stint in the aviary, he was released down by the big river and we hope is doing well.

Construction

Spider Monkey Cage

Spider Monkey Enclosure

Since Douwe returned to Esperanza Verde work on the new spider monkey enclosure has begun again. Now the metal mesh is in place, the doors are completed and some of the cement has been poured. Once completed it will be a vast new enclosure for Lucio and Rimaq, our male spiders. Even though she is released Yanay, our female spider (and Lupa her adoptee) spend most of the day with our workers, we like to think checking the quality of their work.

Other Construction

A few of the volunteers have been working hard to fix the broken steps and repair the paths around Esperanza Verde. The baby monkeys of course loved to lend a hand or rather hinder the process. The old tree nursery near the kitchen has also been deconstructed and the materials from it that are still fit for purpose will now be used elsewhere.

Volunteers

Lately there have been regular trips to waterfall (Regalia), forest walks with Machico and a night walk with Douwe! During the night walk we were fortunate enough to see a coral snake swim beneath a layer of leaves in the river. We all love feeding and caring for the animals but these trips are a great way to have a break every once in a while!

Since the last update we have also seen the arrival of Lauren and Iain, two old volunteers who returned to help look after Esperanza Verde whilst Olivia and Douwe were away. Also a big thanks to Isabel for being on hand as veterinarian!

As always a big thank you to all the supporters who enable us to keep this project running. We would not be able to operate without the help from them or the volunteers.

Esperanza Verde update / 11.06.16 – 01.07.16

Babies becoming kids, a released animal being attacked, a new part-time daddy is born and an all-time favorite returns for a visit – these are only a few of the last week’s big happenings. As you see, it never gets boring here at Esperanza Verde with all the cages being full and plenty of animals living freely around the house. Everybody is enjoying the beginning of the dry season and the beautiful, peaceful jungle surrounding that makes you feel as far from civilization as only imaginable.

Monkeys

Chiquita (baby female woolly monkey), Khali & Cinty (baby male and female capuchin monkeys)

Khali in his hammock
Khali in his hammock

Two of the three babies, Chiquita and Cinty, made a big step last week: first night out and first sleepover outside the baby cage. Luckily baby Khali is giving us some more time to get used to this new teenager behavior by staying in his hammock overnight and still enjoying his milk out of a bottle. Nevertheless, all of them are getting more and more independent. The distance from people keeps getting bigger and they hardly seek human attention anymore. We are very happy about this development and find it great to watch them becoming a part of the big monkey family.

Sira (female night-monkey)

Nightmonkey Sira
Nightmonkey Sira

Sira is such a great enrichment to Esperanza Verde. Everybody enjoys giving attention to and spending time with her. She, on the other hand, rewards us with not only her hyperactive character but also with drinking a lot of milk, sometimes even double the amount she is supposed to drink. Since the baby monkeys are now higher up in the trees, she is lacking some play mates though. We try to give her a bit of extra attention to make up for it.

Lupa (baby female woolly monkey)

Grown up babies Lupa and Chiquita
Grown up babies Lupa and Chiquita
Lupa on Willow
Lupa on Willow

Lupa is still the most independent baby monkey of the group which is great to see; she can be an example for the other baby monkeys. Her search for safety at the other woolly monkeys is still the same, especially with Willow and Kamari. These grown up male woolly´s are really protective over her. But the last weeks, Lupa herself is changing. She often leaves them, to play along with the other baby´s or to see if there is something left from the food plates. She understands that the other woolly monkeys are creating a safe base for her, but she doesn’t want to spend all her time with them. It’s funny to see how Willow tries to boss around on her – behaving like a part-time father – and that Lupa is acting more and more like a teenager.

Nera (female capuchin monkey)

Nera
Nera
Nera during Deworming Treatment
Nera during Deworming Treatment

Within the varied group of capuchin monkeys, 1 ½ year old Nera was acting a bit strange. Many times she was sitting on her own without moving much. She also lost a lot of weight, so that we decided to bring her to the clinic for some deworming. We found out that she suffered from three different species of parasites as well had two worms in her neck and one in her belly from a botfly. Those parasites are relatively easy to remove, but other species were more difficult. She reacted well on the treatment and could be released after a week being in the clinic.

Other Mammals

Kiko (male kinkajou)

At this moment we are keeping Kiko back in his cage again, because he had been attacked by another wild male kinkajou. Olivia and Douwe heard some noises in the middle of the night and Douwe run out and could separate Kiko from the wild male. The wild male was holding Kiko’s head while biting him. His left eye was pretty damaged. We were a little bit afraid that he lost his sight, but for now it seems that it’s recovering slowly. The night-shine is back in his eye! We hope that he will gain confidence again and we hope to be able to try and release him soon.

Zambo (young male tayra)

Zambo on his daily walks
Zambo on his daily walks

If you would not know in which condition this little tayra arrived, you wouldn’t guess how bad he was actually doing not that long ago. Judging from his energy and never-ending eagerness to live, he is now doing better than ever. Also, it seems like he recently discovered his teeth. What may sound cute in the first place, can get very exhausting the same time. He is literally biting everything from leaves to wellies which sometimes can be a big challenge for the volunteer working with him. For this reason we try to keep him busy with two long walks a day as well as some ball playing. He loves the extra attention and we in turn love to see him that happy and full of life!

Kohana (baby female peccary)

Kohana meeting Quintisha
Kohana meeting Quintisha

When we first put her in the cage with the adult female peccary Quintisha, the about 6 month old Kohana was a bit stressed and found a way to sneak out of the new situation. In search of escape she used a small hole in the fence and was later on found in Rincay´s (the tapir) cage. As he is best friends with almost everybody including all the animals, he didn’t really seem to care about his new company. Douwe fixed the fence and re-released her back into Quintisha’s cage. They are slowly getting to know each other and we hope this is the start of a long-lasting nice flat or better cage share. Quintisha seems to be really enjoying it and invites Kohana to lay with her.

Great Egret

The Great Egret
The Great Egret

Unfortunately last week an egret became a victim of local kids throwing stones at him. Fortunately not all kids are this way and he was saved by other local children.

He needed some medical care for a head wound, and we took a fecal exam, which showed a high number of parasites in it. He was treated and released, but due to his, let’s say not really existent ability to fish, he needed an extra treatment and is now again one of the patients in the clinic. We released him again, and within a couple of hours he showed up at the clinic, and the release site was not that close by! So it seems he wants to join us living here at Esperanza Verde…giving us lots of work fishing for him! Let’s see what we can do for him!

Elmo (sloth)

The return of our beloved Elmo
The return of our beloved Elmo

Look, there is Elmo” said Geiler, one of the workers here at Esperanza Verde, probably not thinking about the impact these few words would have. Immediately everybody had a big smile on their face and stormed to the construction site of the new spider monkey cage where the sloth was sighted. What a nice surprise! This after several months of doing a no-show!

Yanay on Rincay
Yanay on Rincay

Construction

Cabin

Et Voila ! - The new Cabin
Et Voila ! – The new Cabin

Bathroom: check!, Furniture: check!, nice exterior painting: check! Now it is only waiting for new (very lucky) long-term volunteers to be occupied by…

New spidermonkey enclosure

The new material that was ordered finally arrived, so we can continue the work on this new enclosure. This will be the biggest project for the time-being we will be working on.

Volunteers

Volunteer Celebration of San Juan
Volunteer Celebration of San Juan
Marie painting the new cabin
Marie painting the new cabin
Cayman sighting on nightwalk
Cayman sighting on nightwalk

In the last period we experienced some very nice group activities such as two guided night walks with Douwe where we sighted a wild sloth, some caimans, snakes and loads of spiders. Also we had the chance to swim and jump off the big waterfall Regalia, do a forest walk and enjoy a delicious lunch in the jungle at the waterfall, on a local holiday. This made our stay even more enjoyable and exciting. Unfortunately, we also had to say goodbye to some very motivated volunteers: Melanie, Valentine, Lore and Mona – thanks for your hard work and great team spirit! And a big thanks to all supporters who enable us to keep this project running in this wonderful way it does.

Au revoir et à bientôt !

Esperanza Verde update / 20.05.16 – 10.06.16

Some weeks have passed here in Esperanza Verde and the last arrival of animals that Olivia brought from Pucallpa are now thriving and becoming a part of our daily routine. We are happy to have released more animals into the wild, as well as moving recovered animals from the clinic into cages. This leaves space to help new animals arriving in need of medical care and attention. From a tour to Pucallpa, Douwe brought back a young peccary and two tortoises, which the police confiscated from a bus.

Furthermore, life continues in the jungle and everyone enjoys seeing the many free animals around the house living in their natural environment in peace with the people around them.

Monkeys

Khali outside
Khali outside
Chiquita
Chiquita

Chiquita (baby female woolly monkey), Khali & Cinty (baby male and female capuchin monkeys)

The three baby monkeys are doing very well. They are all gaining weight now steadily, playing around with each other. They enjoy being with the older monkeys who are good at taking them along. They are getting more independent and we are now really working to distance them from people. For this reason we try not to have them on us at all anymore. Some of the babies and volunteers are finding it a bit hard though, but in general it is going very well. Especially Chiquita is becoming very independent and hardly seeks human attention which is really great!

Sira (female night-monkey)

Sira is doing great and is really enjoying her playtime with the other baby monkeys in the afternoon. We have been getting her used to one of the free cages at the clinic, and recently she spent her first night there. After having been 3 months at the family house, it was about time. The change was stressful at first for her, but she seems to adapt pretty well. In the afternoon she spends time with the baby monkeys outside and stays with them in the outside cage till about 9pm.

Lupa on Willow
Lupa on Willow
Lupa
Lupa

Lupa (baby female woolly monkey)

Lupa still doesn´t seek for human contact which is very good. We moved her out of the clinic into the outside (Roko) cage where she could get used to the monkeys around and sleep with the three other baby monkeys at night. After a week she was released to stay outside with the other monkeys. Willow directly took her on his back and carried her around, but unfortunately he does not always keep a keen eye. On the second night he left her behind at Rincay, the tapir, and she was picked up by Yanay, the female spider monkey. We took her in for some nights, as she did not seem to have eaten a lot and lost weight. Now she is outside again, but seems to have learned and comes to drink milk and takes some food from us. Willow is still claiming her a lot though!

Xira (female young white-fronted capuchin)

After her release in mid-April, Xira, has been doing fine playing around in the trees. However, we started to notice that she was getting very skinny which is why she is now getting milk twice a day to help her gain some weight again.

Other Mammals

Saya, one of the coatis outside
Saya, one of the coatis outside

Kimsa (female coati)

After her release, Kimsa at first looked better but after a while her eye infection started to get worse. She was not walking around a lot anymore and mostly stayed near the volunteer kitchen. It was therefore decided to bring her back to the clinic to treat her and help her gain strength. Very sadly she gave up after one day in the clinic and left this world. The autopsy showed that the cause of death could have been many… Her eye infection had eaten some of the bone around it and might have also spread into her blood. She also had a lot of parasites in her intestines and even had a little internal bleeding from a fall as it looks like, but we do not know for sure. To make the story even more sad, we also found two small babies inside her which could have been born any day. Kimsa was a fighter but unfortunately very unlucky.

Zambo exploring
Zambo exploring

Zambo (young male tayra)

What seemed like a never ending de-worming treatment, it has finally ended. After many weeks Zambo is parasite free! But then the next thing came along, when an observant volunteer found maggots hiding inside his feet. Later on, it turned out that they were in his paws, mouth and under his eye lid. After an intense treatment he is now doing better and we hope no more things will show up. He is very curious, sniffs around a lot and goes out for a walk on a leash outside now. He is a strong and now very happy boy!

Chula, juvenile agouti
Chula, juvenile agouti

Milo & Chula (male and female agouti)

After some time being quarantined in the clinic the two agouties have been put into the reptile enclosure. Chula the juvenile probably jumped over the fence and was shortly outside, but seemed to have jumped back in again. She and Milo have been seen now regularly and seem to do well there. Of course if they decide to and Milo is big enough they will have the change to jump to the big world themselves someday.

Arrival of Kohana (Peccary)
Arrival of Kohana (Peccary)

Kohana (baby female peccary)

Our new arrival, a three-months old peccary brought by Douwe from the Ministry in Pucallpa, is now staying at the enclosure around the family house together with Ringo (the deer). After some de-worming she is doing very well and is always happy to welcome people to the house. In some weeks we are planning to put her into the cage with Quintisha so they can enjoy each other’s company.

Birds

Festive amazons in aviary
Festive amazons in aviary

Parakeets

The 120 Parakeets in Igor cage are still getting ready to fly. Approximately half of them still need some more time to recover and grow back their feathers before we can release them.

Cobalt winged parakeets, Festive Amazon parrots and Blue headed parrot

The cobalt winged parakeets and the festive amazons have been good in the clinic and past their quarantine period. The parakeets have been introduced into Igor cage, and are doing fine. The Festive amazons, Dali and Kipa, are now in the aviary and already after 15 minutes were happily eating together with some of the orange winged amazons.

Furthermore we just had a new arrival, which is a blue headed parrot staying in the clinic now. It was brought by a local boy from Bello Horizonte. Apparently it was caught in his uncles fishing net. It might be a wild one, just a bit in shock, and as soon as it has had its medical check-up, and we are sure it can fly well, we might be able to release it again.

Shakalaka
Shakalaka

Shakalaka, (speckled chachalaca)

A bit more than a month has pasted since Olivia brought this beautiful bird from Pucallpa. Shakalaka is now good and healthy and has therefore been let out of its cage. She can fly enough to be able to get around and stay out of monkeys’ harm! For two days she has been out under the watchfull eye of a volunteer, but on the 3rd day she did not want to come out. We will see….She is a tame bird, and it will take some time for her to adjust to all these animals living out here as well.

Reptiles

The two yellow footed tortoises, that were at the clinic, have been treated for parasites and have been moved an outside enclosure to spend their quarantine period.

Their place in the clinic was quickly taken again by the two tortoises, Douwe brought from the Ministry together with Kohana, the peccary.

The three legged yellow spotted river turtle has happily moved in with the other turtles in the reptile cage.

Construction

In between a lot dry days, we did have three days with a lot of heavy rain. This resulted in the river rising and the construction workers saw their chance to transport construction material much more efficient than normally as they could take it across the big river up to the small stream leading up to the volunteer kitchen.

Cabin

The material for the spider monkey cage still hasn´t arrived, so instead the construction time has been used to finish the cabin. All the mosquito mesh in the room is finished and we have been digging a big hole outside the cabin for the latrine (septic tank). This is now being build up so it will be ready for the bathroom that is being finalized with tiling.

Volunteers

Zambo and Lore
Zambo and Lore

In the last period we have had to say goodbye to some long time volunteers. Amongst them, Dominik, who had been here for nine months, gave a goodbye party for the total of four volunteers leaving the next day. In this group was also Morgane our head volunteer. We thank her for her hard work here and welcome Lore and Kimberley as our new head volunteers. When people leave new people come, that is how it works here and we are happy to welcome many new motivated volunteers who have already started with helping out.

Thanks to all the volunteers and donations that make all this possible! This little green hope in the jungle is growing bigger and bigger every day and love to watch the changes happening.

Cheers!

Esperanza Verde update / 22.04.16 – 20.05.16

After a calm week with less and less animals in the cages, due to a lot of releases, we received a couple of new ones to bring more variety back into our daily routine. The Ministry confiscated a few animals and phoned us. As they were not able to come here Olivia travelled to Pucallpa to have a look. She came back with a bit more than we thought but this is not surprising, as the animal trade in this region is such a problem, and there is no other rescue center to turn to.

Monkeys

Chiquita (Baby female woolly monkey), Khali & Cinty (Baby male and female capuchin monkeys)

The Babies did recover since the last update. All three of them are together again and playing outside as much as possible. They are also slowly gaining weight again. We still try to distance ourselves more from the monkeys, but it proves to be hard – especially for the long term volunteers. That in mind, it is fair to say, that they do very well outside and are eating and drinking good.

Willow, Kamari & Nakoya (Woolly monkeys)

As always an honorable mention. The “old” woollies are still around of course, but with all the new stuff happening, they sometimes get lost in the updates. Kamari and especially Willow start to show dominant behavior. They are protective around the babies and their canines are getting bigger every day. They break more branches while playing to show off their strength, too. We need to be really strict with the no-touching policy now, to keep them in a healthy distance towards us humans. That is better for them and for us as well. Nakoya on the other hand is only around the volunteers when there is food involved. We found out that she had parasites, so we had to deworm her. Now she finally seems to grow in weight.

Sira (female night-monkey)

As a result of the arrival of several new animals we had to occupy the cage, which we´ve been using for the night-monkey, for another animal. So we changed strategies and put Sira together with the other baby monkeys for some hours and the end of every day. Although she´s the smallest, her energy seems to last forever. Perfect for a play fight with the others and the more adult monkeys.

Lupa (Baby female woolly monkey)

Lupa is one of the new arrivals from this month. She is a young woolly, a bit older than Chiquita. She arrived in good condition and is not used to a lot of handling by humans. But the curiosity is strong in this little monkey, whenever we feed her, she closes up to us to see what we are doing. After a bit more than a week (having had a medical check-up), we transferred her to the baby monkey cage. All of them get along well, but for the moment only Chiquita, Cintyh and Kali go outside during the day.

Other Mammals

Kimsa (Coati)

One of the recent released coatis showed up with an infected eye. Having always had one bad eye, we didn’t expect much from the treatment at first, but it showed that under the infection Kimsa still has a healthy eye. One of the volunteers has a veterinarian education and put it upon herself to treat the coati until the eye gets better. Naturally we had to put her in an enclosure for the time, the clinic is in full use! She looks now much better and was released just recently, directly roaming the forest floor for insects and worms.

Takari, (male paca), and Capac ( male pacarana)

Both are new arrivals and both are rodents. They are nocturnal animals and therefore not active during daytime. Both are in very good health, they were very well taken cared for where they came from. This is something we rarely experience with new arrivals.

Suyai (about a month old baby three toed sloth, female)

The most notable arrival is probably the baby sloth Suyai. A three toed sloth, unlike Elmo (two toed sloth). Everybody went crazy over this cute furry little friend. One of the volunteers nearly fainted even! Three toed sloths are extremely hard to raise, though. Apparently most of the young sloths raised by humans, die within the first 3 months. That´s why only Olivia and Douwe almost all the time take care of it. They take it upon themselves to feed it milk and leaves, so it gets the highest chance of survival. Unfortunately it was not to be. After 14 days with us, he had diarrhea, and within 2 days he died. We knew it would be hard, or even not possible, but without hope you can’t keep going. Therefore as well the name Suyai, which means hope. We are very sad it did work out, as it really seemed promising. It all went very quick….

Zambo (young male tayra)

Zambo was a case to worry a bit. He arrived with one blind eye, and another seemingly infected possible also blind eye. Also the smell of the fur indicated, that he has been troubled by parasites or illness. So he got a cage in the clinic, where we treated his better eye and took feces samples. As expected we found a lot of parasites and started to deworm him. Sadly the eye seemed to be untreatable, which makes him a blind animal. But he is gaining weight since the arrival and he also started to climb without eyesight to the top of his cage, after effective training by volunteers. What a brave animal! In the future we might be able to walk with him on a leash outside, just like Pepe, another Tayra, which several might remember from the early beginings of Esperanza Verde.

Milo & Chula (male and female agouti)

Another pair of rodents. Milo was brought to us by locals from nearby town and is still very young and also accustomed to humans. For a normally very shy and nervous animal, that is a bit extraordinary. He had his cage outside first besides the Volo House. Due to his small size, he could always escape to the front cage. So we decided to put him together with Chula in the clinic. Chula came with the other animals brought by Olivia from the Ministry and is – unlike Milo – extremely shy and nervous. Fortunately they get along well and even share a trunk together.

Birds

Parakeets

The Parakeet releasing is on halt, as we are now left with the last group of parakeets, of about 120, which all still have to grow back their feathers for a good flight. We still see several parakeets flying around every day. We have to be realistic though as we know not all of them might have survived, but we of course hope most of them made their way back to the wild again.

Pauki (Oropendola)

Pauki is back, ladies and gentlemen! After a mysterious absence of over two weeks, the lovely bird with his beautiful cry appeared again in Esperanza Verde. He seems to do fine on his own, but we love to have him around of course.

Cobalt winged parakeets & Festive amazon parrots

Alongside with all the rodents and woolly monkey, tayra and sloth, four birds arrived as well. All of them seem to have had experience with humans and are not too wild anymore. The festive are really nice looking parrots, but are not in very good condition at the moment. They share a cage with two vicious but very happy parakeets, that take every chance to pick your fingers while you´re cleaning the cage. They don’t just defend themselves when you come to close, they go for the attack. But then again, they can also make a nice whistle. Very funny birds.

Shakalaka, (speckled chachalaca)

Also together with all the animals Olivia brought from Pucallpa, was this beautiful speckled chachalaca. Very tame and always curious when you come up to feed him. We hope he will have a future here in Esperanza Verde outside, like Pauki, roaming around and visiting us frequently.

Supay (Shiny cow bird)

Some very sad news for the last part of this section. We have to announce the departure of a chirpy young bird. Supay fell victim to a boa in the aviary. It happened after work time, probably during the night. Nobody expected such thing to happen and his death is a tragedy, especially for long term volunteers. He was always super active, sitting on the volunteers, attacking them or just singing in the morning while everybody is cutting food in the bodega. Rest in peace Supay.

Reptiles

Next to the mammals Olivia brought were two yellow footed tortoises and 9 yellow spotted riverturtles of different sizes. The two tortoise are in the clinic for anti-fungal treatment and the turtles are in the enclosure surrounding the old office (the MOMO-cage) for a three-month period as quarantaine.

A woman from Bello Horizonte handed another, very small yellow spotted river turtle to Kayla It is only three legged but seems to do fine in a small pond in the clinic.

Construction

working on the cabin bathroom
working on the cabin bathroom

Cabin

As we are still waiting for the material from Lima for the new spider-monkey cage, we started with a new project: the cabin. It is basically old office being rebuilt. We will built an extra toilet and shower attached to it and remodel the room, so people can sleep there in peace (which can be important for head volunteers). At the moment the walls for the sanitary installation are almost done, but the mosquito mash in the room still needs redoing.

Volunteers

At the moment of writing the group of volunteers consist of 12 people. It is a very motivated group of people, be it for the animals or in construction. With the clinic done now and a lot of new, young animals people we sometimes have to work overtime, but everybody enjoys it to the end. Soon there will be a shift though and a good part of the group will leave. But as always we await more motivated people with new energy and enthusiasm.

Thanks and greetings from the jungle!