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)

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

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

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)

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)

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 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, 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.

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

Wallace (male baby red howler monkey)

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)

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)

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 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)

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)

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!

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)

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)

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 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, 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 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.

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)

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

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)

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 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)

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 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 11^th 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!

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

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.

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)

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)

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

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

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

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.

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

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!

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)

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)

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 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

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

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!

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

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.

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)

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 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)

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)

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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)

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)

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 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

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 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)

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 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.

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

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

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)

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 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

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!

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 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 (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.

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 (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 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.