This month was one of several visits. We received a small workshop from the Civil Defence department and learned about forest fires and more importantly; how to prevent them. The Ministry of Flora and Fauna visited us for the yearly inspection ensuring EV meets and exceeds its animal obligations. And last but not least we welcomed the help of two veterinarian students from Romania.
Animals
Our most cheeky resident Cumala (Female black spider monkey) gave birth to her third baby, now named Cumba. Mother and daughter are doing fine. In her first week Cumba already was very aware of her surrounding, looking at everything or everyone coming close to her.
Eros (chestnut eared aracari) was moved from the quarantine to the Elmo front cage where he directly got a visit by Amora (the chestnut eared aracari in the main cage) checking him out, seemingly eager to get his attention.
Chela (young female crab eating raccoon) was moved from the quarantine to an outside enclosure and with the visit of the Ministry we initiated the first stage of her release, a small walk in the outside world.
Alicucu, the adult tropical screech-owl, who came in some months ago, is now healthy, new feathers have grown, very human-shy, flies well and catches his own crickets. With the Ministry visiting it was time to let him go. We opened the door of his enclosure and well you can imagine, he flew quickly out and after some landings he flew out of sight.
Sencha, juvenile female coati, had an exciting walk on the wild side of her enclosure. We let her out for some time to get to know the surroundings. She loved it, and it seems she can´t wait to explore the jungle more.
[read more]
As Cumala enjoys showing herself and therefore often finds herself in our path, it was easy to determine the baby is a girl. With Cumba and Yayana (Yanays baby, only about two months younger) brings the count of the outside female spidermonkeys to a total of seven. Male youngsters, Alessi, Ashuke and Miyo, are joining this happy female group more and more.
Eros seems to be eager to join her, and we can hear them have seemingly happy conversations during the day. As Eros can´t fly yet because of his feathers, we are taking it slow, as it will be a big step for him to go to a huge enclosure, with as well all the blue and yellow macaws.
We can now start taking Chela on outside walks in the late afternoon so she can start exploring the forest. Showing her the small river stream, teaching her to catch some snails or fish so at some point she will be able to manage to take care of herself in the beauty of Selva Dormida, the surrounding forest of Esperanza Verde.
As Sencha is still young and would normally have the protection of her group, we will take it slow, guiding her through the different stages of release till she is fit to be on her own in the outside world. We are sure Sumo (the male adult coati) will help her out!
[/read]
SUST Animal Orphan Hospital
This month we had an exciting visit from two veterinary students from Romania; Mada and Catalin, who stayed with us several days and helped us out wherever needed, e.g. a medical check of several tortoises.
Omar, and Jack, both cobalt-winged parakeets, were returned to the outside enclosure Igor. The next morning, we found Omar, with some injuries on his head and leg, and a broken leg, while Jack seemed very happy being back with his old troop of birds. Luckily Omar´s spirit did not seem to be broken; he directly took well to the intensive care by Olivia, and all the extra attention coming with it.
[read more]
Mada, from Romania, has been already involved for years in animal rescue and is doing a lot of work for the SUSTOAH in Bucharest, Romania. Together with her fellow vet-student Catalin they helped us a lot in the clinic and especially with a medical checkup of eight tortoises.
The eight tortoises that have been spending the last weeks of their quarantine time in the Momo enclosure were all taken to the clinic for a medical check, they were measured, weighed, and given deparasitation. They were then moved to their more permanent and spacious enclosure, ´Pepito´.
[/read]
Construction
Next to the ongoing construction of the new margay enclosure for Grety and Diego (female and male margay), there is always enough to be done here at EV.
Dry season is proving to become a challenging one already, it has not rained for weeks, and buckets need to be washed at the river. Volunteers can go for a nice swim in the river or to the waterfall, but many of our animals are dependent on a continuous water supply. Douwe is already on it and is coming up with an eco-friendly solar powered pump.
[read more]
Every year when needed we have been pumping water from the small river with a gasoline pump. In the last years the dry seasons got longer and the need for water in EV bigger, and pumping water was done several times a week, with a lot of carrying around of the pump to the right spot in the river. We are now looking into a solution by building a well and having it operated by a solar powered water pump.
[/read]
Volunteer life
This month we were able send all volunteers on a well-deserved day out to the beautiful waterfall Regalia. Everyone had a fun and sunny day in the water.
As July turned the corner Kayla finally turned 18, although she already became independent some time ago 🙂 . All were invited to her party in the village to celebrate her birthday with food, drinks, and lots of dancing.