General info
Last week has been a special one, a film crew from the Dutch television was here for the program ´Floortje naar het einde van de wereld´ (Floortje to the end of the world). This program is about people who decided to leave their country, following their passion and live ´at the end of the word´. The main focus for the program was the family; their life here, how they live and work here at the project. They were very enthusiastic and it was nice having them here. It was of course also very intensive, with a big camera following you for some days. During their stay they took several interviews and made many shots of the family, the animals and the work and went to the school with Kayla and Marlon. Of course they interviewed the family. With the donation of the program (VARA), we can now start with the building of a new cage for the parakeets. Thank you!
The program will be broadcasted in between October 2015 and February 2016. We believe the program will have a positive influence for Esperanza Verde.
This rainy season, and it has taken longer than earlier years, has been the most wet one so far. It has never been so muddy at Esperanza Verde as now. But the sun is showing up more and we hope it will get dryer soon. The way from Curimana to us has become very bad as well, so travel time is a bit prolonged.
Monkeys
The monkeys are doing fine. The small monkeys, Leo (young male squirrel monkey) and Kiru (young tamarin) moved from the office an outside cage. This way they could have more space, get used to the surroundings and start interacting with the outside monkeys, who often hang out around their cage. Kiru also ´talks´ with the wild group, which is a good sign, hopefully he can join them. It is the plan to release both Leo and Kiru next week. Both of them have gained some weight and they eat more solid food as before (although Kiru still loves his strawberry milk).
Mica (female brown capuchin) had a crush on Josh, our long term volunteer. She followed him everywhere and Josh got a bit annoyed after a few days, hearing the constant high sound Mica made. Luckily for Josh it stopped when he went to Curimana on his day off.
Camila is doing fine, as far as we know she had only one epileptic attack which didn´t harm her. The monkeys around her screamed a lot, which was good, because the volunteers took a look to see what was happening.
Other Mammals
Quintisha finally could move from the reptile enclosure to her new cage, the Xena cage, which has been finished recently (see construction). She seems to be happy in there, exploring the area.
Birds
After quite some parakeets (from the big group which arrived one month ago) died, it seems that the ones who survived are doing fine; we still had some casualties, most likely to do with the overcrowded cages. We hope to build an extra cage for them soon, to solve part of the problem. Then it just a matter of time to let their feathers grow, to so they can get released.
In the aviary one white eyed parakeet was discovered to be missing. He probably died, and as it was probably some time ago, we have not been able to find his body anymore. The others are doing fine.
Tupak (toucan) is doing fine as well. To some volunteers he is seems a bit aggressive, but luckily he can´t bite that hard yet. He is still growing and the change for him that he can get released in the centre is quite good.
Unfortunately two of four orange winged amazons (arrived together with the big group of parakeets a month ago) died. The two which are left have some skin problems, and we hope that we can set up a treatment with the help of our veterinary team, supporting us from Switzerland.
The parakeets in the office, which had some injuries or health problems when they arrived, were all doing fine, so they moved one of the outside cages, and joined the parakeets there.
Pichu, (the white eyed parakeet), which was brought to the aviary about a month ago, is back in the office. His old wound on his breast is open again, and he has a wound on one of his legs. We will have to treat him again and keep him in a smaller enclosure till all his feathers have changed so he will be able to fly again.
Reptiles
The five tortoises (Momo and Co) finished their iodine treatment, since their fungus has been gone. Five other tortoises were still awaiting a bigger enclosure after their quarantine period. When Quintisha was moved, the reptile enclosure was made ready for all these tortoises.
Unfortunately Pothos (one of the five) got injured at his head, and is now in the office under treatment. He got stuck in the fence and lost one eye because of this. With the help of two veterinary students his wounds are treated daily and we have good hopes for his recovery.
All others were moved to the reptile enclosure, where they enjoy the space. They share the enclosure with the yellow-footed river turtles (about 40 of the babies we received in November 2014 from the ministry and 6 older ones).
We decided to leave Pepito (our oldest tortoise, approx. 15 years) with Rincay, our tapir. He has been with Rincay since he arrived here, about 3 years ago, and follows him around. It seems to harsh to separate the two, as also Rincay seems to enjoy his company.
A special thanks goes here to the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde for another donation, to help us take care of all reptiles.
Construction
Machico and Geiler (who has been working here now for a year) got the new peccary cage (named Xena) ready. It was a job that went in between other jobs, so it took a bit of time, but they did a great job, and Quintisha is enjoying her new area.
After a small break (because of the delay in arrival of the roof plates and bricks, the work on the clinic is going well again, at the moment we are busy with the floor. A lot of the bricks, sand and cement have been carried all the way up to the clinic, a really tough job as there is no other way then to carry them by hand.
Next to these jobs a lot has been done in general maintenance. The house, kitchen and bodega got a big cleanup, and lots of rocks have been put on the path, making walking now much more comfortable. The aviary got a lot of new branches and the spider monkey cage got a big clean up.
Volunteers
Last week the volunteers went to the Regalia, the big waterfall. The first time they went it started to rain a lot on the way to the waterfall, about an hour by boat. After a small discussion they made the choice to go back. That had been the right one because the next week the wetter was beautiful and sunny. All the volunteers had a great day.
There are quite some volunteers (11 at the moment) which means that a lot of work can be done. Also there have been more campfires recently, which all the volunteers and the family enjoy a lot.