It has been another busy month here in Esperanza Verde, with funny, loving, as well as very sad stories.
Monkeys
Nakoya and Kamari went missing near the start of the month; Geiler and Machico were out most mornings looking for them both in the surrounding area to no avail. After a couple of weeks one of the local neighbors said that they had seen 2 Woolly monkeys around his house so with a full party of four (Douwe, Olivia, Machico and Geiler) they went to their land. No sign unfortunately of the monkeys. The next day the neighbor came by to tell us he had managed to capture one so Douwe and Geiler went and managed to bring back Nakoya, a bit skinnier than when she left but overall in good health. Kamari has not been seen since we hope the best for him, but as monkey meat is still one of the favorite meat sources locally we do not have high hopes. Nakoya is now recovering in Pepe enclosure.
Wallace our oldest male howler monkey, who was with us for about 1,5 year, recently passed away. He was found by one of our volunteers, Douwe performed an examination but no clear cause of death was identified. He had been very healthy so we assume he either died from a fall or perhaps from a snake bite. We will miss him a lot; he was our first successful effort of raising a howler monkey.
Other Mammals
Ringo the male red brocket deer that has been living around the family house was also moved this month to Xena enclosure which borders Rabito´s, another red brocket deer. The hope is that they will become friends so that they can be moved in together at a later date.
Quintisha, the oldest female collared peccary, died after being ill for some time. She has been with us for nearly five years, arriving when she was about a year old. Necropsy showed a probable tumor in her nose. Timo, Kohana (the male and other female peccary) and all of us will miss her calm and kind character. She was always excited for a scratch whenever we walked past.
Birds
Once again the white winged parakeets have been moved to another cage in order to separate flying birds and non-flying birds. Also Chipi, the ruddy ground dove was moved with them as well as Singas and Pichu, the two white eyed parakeets. This time it seems that all parakeets were either unable to fly or too tame to be released so they have just been moved to the new Tupak cage where they will stay for now. This will allow the Igor cage, our non-release bird cage, to be disinfected properly. Even with some recent shortages of volunteers we have still found time to make some enrichment for these birds so that they don’t get bored in their new cage.
SUST Animal Orphan Hospital
Talisha a new young female woolly monkey who was recently brought to us from one of the local villagers. She spent a few weeks up in the clinic receiving milk and learning the ropes of being a wild monkey and not a pet. After a few weeks she was moved down into Pepe cage along with Nakoya to try to help them to bond and to give Talisha a bit more contact with our outside monkeys and less with humans. At first she didn’t like this and kept trying to follow volunteers out of the cage and sometimes clinging to them while giving her milk but now she is settling nicely. Hopefully she will be released soon and can join more of her own kind in the trees.
Samara one of the female juvenile woolly monkeys was recently wounded on her right arm. Olivia heard her scream in the late afternoon at the peccary cage, and found her with her right arm hanging. She was probably trying to steal food from the peccaries and Timo or Kohana did not take that well. Thanks to the expertise of Olivia, Douwe and Lisa (Vet), Samara is now making a recovery in Pepe cage with Talisha and Nakoya. Although she has trouble moving her arm we are hopeful she will make a full recovery.
Soraya our Amazonian dwarf porcupine is still recovering from her recent amputation of her foot. Her wound gets cleaned and bandaged daily. She is able to move around with her leg which is a good sign, but for now will stay in the clinic till the wound has fully healed.
Icarus, the new ruddy ground dove was taken to the Tupak cage at the time of moving all parakeets, and Chipi the resident ground dove. They quickly formed a nice couple.
New Arrivals
Our new arrivals are Benito and Tagu, two male saddle back tamarins. Tagu an adult male and Benito a baby tamarin were recently brought in. Tagu arrived first and about 2 weeks later Benito arrived. We tried introducing them to see if they would bond but Benito was too scared and it was decide they would not share a cage. Benito stays in a small cage and is enjoying the enrichment that is put in daily; he is a very active and playful monkey. Tagu is very scared of us humans, but loves the grasshoppers in the bottle which is delivered to him every day.
Volunteers
Keeping good relations with the local village is very important here at Esperanza Verde and with Ines a Spanish volunteer it seemed like a good time to give a fresh face a go at helping to educate the village in animal welfare. She was received very well by the local school and was invited back to give another talk. This is very good news for the local village and Esperanza Verde as hopefully this will encourage more people to stop hunting endangered animals or keeping them as pets. Lisa our head volunteer and vet has also been castrating local cats and dogs. Lots of people were bringing their pets forward which is very good news.