General information

Life at Esperanza Verde is very busy as usual. We have had to deal with unexpected animal arrivals and a slight shortage of volunteers. We are all working very hard, carrying sandbags and caring for all the animals which are building a nice atmosphere between the volunteers. We celebrated Kayla’s birthday on the 20th of July. We had a nice party at Olivia and Douwe’s house and enjoyed Olivia’s home-made lasagna.

Monkeys

Good news for our three Spider Monkeys, we are making a second door for their cage. This will mean that we can regularly clean up the bigger area in the cage without any danger for the animals or Douwe and Olivia. Also this way we can give more kinds of enrichment for the big monkeys. Soon the door will be fixed and that will be a nice improvement on their living conditions.

Unfortunately we have had some problems with Mica, our female brown capuchin monkey. Twice, since some months, she picked a male volunteer, to follow around as a love sick monkey. Trying to touch him, making a lot of high pitched screams, trying to jump him, not letting him sleep at night (making squeaking sounds from outside the mesh) etc. It stopped after some time, but then she picked another guy. At the moment all is quiet, but you can imagine she can be a bit scary sometimes.

Other Mammals

Rincay, our Brazilian tapir, has had a lot of ticks recently and all the volunteers have been helping out to try and remove them. These parasites can make animals sick and we try to remove them twice a day. We keep an eye on him and hopefully the ticks will wear off.

Elmo, the two-toed Sloth, has been doing pretty well lately. He comes back now and then for his food and then goes back in the forest for fresh leaves from the trees. During a heavy rainfall a few days ago his food table snapped and he fell on the ground. Luckily a volunteer found him quickly and he managed to climb up the volunteer and went back to his branch. The food table was fixed the same day.

Birds

There is a lot happening with birds at Esperanza Verde, there are a lot of new arrivals and there are also releases.

A few weeks ago we decided that it was time for Tupak, our white-throated toucan, to spread his wings and explore the area a bit. So on one day we set the cage open and we watched. He looked somewhat interested and came out after a few minutes to eat the food we put just outside his cage. After he finished his food he explored the outsides of his cage and went back in the cage. Now every day we open his door in the morning and watch him while he practices his wing muscles. At night he flies back to his cage to spend the night there. So far the release is a success and he explores the area everyday a bit more. He loves visiting Rincay, while stealing his food. Rincay does not seem to mind, just another companion to spend the day with!

We decided that the two new orange-winged amazons, Logan and Yamara, were ready to set foot in the big aviary with all the other parrots. After their release in the aviary they were a bit timid and climbed up to the top to see everything. At first one of the macaws took a look and after that the amazons got reunited with their own species. The now five amazons are forming a nice group and they are almost always sitting close to each other.
A week ago we got a large amount of white-winged parakeets and white-eyed parakeets, 677 in total. The birds were brought by the ministry of Fauna and Flora from Pucallpa. They were all confiscated while being illegally transported from Pucallpa to Lima. They arrived unannounced in really small cages and each cage had a chunk of papaya to eat. The birds are most certainly wild-caught and were supposed to be sold as pets. The birds were put in the only cage still available, with the three compartments (PEPE-cage) right after we put a lot of branches in.

Every day, after their arrival we find dead birds, on bad days more than 25. All were in very bad state and might not have been given food or water for days. All together they eat four (!) full buckets of fruit mixed with vitamins and medicine. And still it seems not to be enough. We try to provide them with everything they need and we take special care of the weaker ones.
It is hard to think of those people who caught them in nets and treated them so badly just to get some money for the ones which survive. We see the results in a very harsh way. Every morning we go to the cage, afraid of the amount of parakeets that died over night still as a consequence of being deprived of food and water too long, and being packed in little cages for several days till weeks.
At the moment after 1,5 week it seems they are all improving and we are working hard on the new small aviary to create more space for them. They all had some of their feathers pulled out, so it will take several months before they will be able to fly again. And then hopefully their release.

Other news is that the big group of white-winged parakeets, which arrived in Esperanza Verde a few months ago, is ready to be released. We made a small door in two of the three cages to let them out bit by bit. The doors are made in a way that only the birds that can fly properly could fly out. We opened the small doors in the cages a couple of days ago, but none of them seemed to have gone out yet. We hope that soon some of them will fly out and others will follow their lead.

Reptiles

Pothos, our yellow-footed Tortoise, that was injured on his head and lost an eye, is still in an enclosure in the office. We started force-feeding him as he was not eating by himself. With this and the medical treatment he is receiving he seems to get stronger. We first were afraid he would lose his other eye as well, but fortunately we were able to safe it. He is doing quite well and you can see that the injured skin is healing. He gets a bath now twice a week with vitamins to give his skin more strength. He is getting more strength and showing signs, like trying to destroy his cage, that he feels better. We also put him in the sun now and then to make sure that he doesn’t get a lack of vitamins.

Construction

A lot of work has been done on the clinic, but of course something came up again; the arrival of the big group of parakeets. At that moment it was all hands on deck for taking care of them.
So we started to build a small aviary as quick as possible, as the parakeets are now in too overcrowded cages. We hope to finish it soon, so we can start moving them to more space.
Thanks to the donation of the VARA (Dutch television) and the volunteers of the Royal Burger’s Zoo it made it possible for us to get all the material for the aviary.

Volunteers

The last couple of weeks we have been running out of hands, but we manage with the right commitment to keep all the animals happy and do as much construction as we can. Next to volunteers we also have trainees who are helping out. Together we have a nice group of people who are willing to do the best for all the animals and have a lot fun while doing that!

General information

The past few weeks have been aimed extensively toward constructing the new animal clinic, a process that has been moving at a rather quick pace.
More animal cages have been repaired or altered in order to better accommodate the animals living within.
With a surprising low amount of rain revealing vast sand beds, we hasten our work to dig as much of the substance we can to finish the clinic foundation.
Due to the lack of rain, travel is not a grievous issue any longer. Although sporadic power outages have been occurring in the nearby city of Bello Horizonte and Curimana, we anticipate no serious problems arising from this.

Monkeys

We recently oversaw the release of two of our monkeys, Kiru (Tamarin), and Leo (Squirrel monkey), at Esperanza Verde. The hope was, after extensive observations of the primate interaction through the cage they resided in, that both tiny monkeys would be easily assimilated into the wild groups that inhabit our area.

Our maternal capuchin monkey named Mica is a wonderful host mother to smaller monkeys who lack parents. She is well known to take care of her group, protect them, and she is the key piece in integrating a captive monkey into a free-roaming one. By leaning on Mica as a crutch, we allowed her and another woolly monkey named Willow to enter the small monkey cage and socialize with both of them without the separation of any walls. The process couldn’t have been better executed. Leo immediately took to riding on Mica’s back, just as many other squirrel monkeys have done in the past.

Kiru, however, took to clinging desperately to Willow’s back, much to Willow’s primary disdain. Willow tried at first to remove Kiru from him, but Kiru held tighter still. To our astonishment this only lasted for a short time before Willow grew to love Kiru, picking him up and replacing him onto his back if he had fallen to off. In a sense, Willow became his father and caretaker-exactly as we had hoped. Leo is thriving out of captivity.
Unfortunately after 2,5 days with Willow, Kiru has disappeared from our sights at one morning. The night before he was seen still clinging on to Willow. We are clueless in what happened.
Several of the woolly monkeys have been given medicine to combat certain parasites such as Giardia that we found during routine feces examinations. Nikita, another female capuchin monkey, has had her milk intake reduced to twice a day from three times daily as she grows more and more independent.

Other Mammals

Quintisha, our peccary, received a nice surprise when we altered her cage to allow our workers to actually touch her. She yearns for volunteers to pet her (especially behind her ears) and the lower wall ensures that feeding her food with medicine will make it into her belly and not just the ground.

Birds

Our legions of parakeets are coming along wonderfully. They eat (a lot!) and we seem to have reached a point where finding a dead parakeet isn’t expected anymore. They are still held in quarantine until they are cleared for diseases.
Pichu, the white-eyed parakeet in the office, has healed well under careful medical supervision. His chest wound is treated daily with a topical ointment, he receives a daily dosage o oral antibiotics, but his injured leg is completely healed.
Tupac, the toucan, grows larger every day. New colorful plumage is sprouting on his chest, a sign that our baby is growing up fast! We hope that he continues to improve and grow so that release can happen very soon.

Reptiles

The tortoise living in the office, Pothos, remains in critical condition. His eye wounds, though healing slowly without any apparent sign of infection, has left him with one missing eye and one that is unable to open. He will not eat any food we try to give him. In the beginning his strength was much greater than his current state. He still maintains a will to live, and for that we will strive to help him as much as we can. As recovery goes slowly we keep up our hopes, we can help him recover, while trying to save his last eye.

Construction

Oh, what a time it has been for construction! The low levels of the river have given us the wonderful opportunity to dredge for sand for days at a time. The clinic will require an egregious amount to finish, a number we can only pray to achieve sometime in the next couple of weeks. On the bright sight, two entire tiles (out of six) of flooring have been laid and set with plumbing. Soon the walls on those patches will be complete as well so we can work on ironing out the smaller details once we have an inside to work in rather than only a roof and mud. Our septic tank for the clinic is also almost finished thanks to the strong hands of so many volunteers helping us dig. The end result will be somewhere around three meters. We have two and a half completed so far.
Regular maintenance such as re-lining paths and cages with rocks to stem the flow of mud never ends, but that’s part of the life we live here. As soon as the clinic is completed and our cages improved on, more and more animals will be able to be taken care of here with better equipment than what we use now.

Volunteers

So many volunteers these past few weeks, counting is hard! With all the extra hands we’ve managed to do so much to improve the project with more yet still to come. Obviously the clinic will be our crowning achievement, but who can really guess what more we can think of to help the animals after this building? As long as more volunteers continue to write us, looking for a place to spend some time giving back to nature and helping the many vulnerable species of animals residing here, our work will be abundant and an indescribable help to everything involved here in Esperanza Verde.

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.

General info

The rainy season seems to drag on. During those last weeks we still had to endure some storms events, which caused a branch to crash down on one of the solar panels next to the office.

Monkeys

On the 12th of April we received a massive arrival of animals, mainly birds (she further) and a young male tamarin monkey which we named Kiru (meaning for gold). He is in a small cage in the office where he receives strawberry milk five times a day as well as some fruit. He asks for a lot of attention and loves jumping on people’s shoulder.
Since the 25th of April, he shares his cage with the young Leo, a squirrel monkey brought by Elena from Bello Horizonte where he was someone’s pet.
They both seem to get along pretty well.
We still receive regularly visits of the wild groups of squirrel monkeys and wild tamarins which come to share some fruit with the resident monkeys from time to time.
Mica (female capuchin) and Louie (young male squirrel monkey) like to hang out on top of one of the cages or in the trees accompanied by the three woolly monkeys and sometimes Shambito (young male tamarin), which spend now all his time outside.

Willow the male woolly monkey still tries by every means to catch people’s attention and now Nagoya (female woolly) seems to follow his path by trying to interact more and more with the volunteers.

Nikita, the young capuchin female, still receives milk three times per day, but seems to become more and more independent.
Camila, our female squirrel monkey, has had several episodes of what seems like epileptic attacks. She had a bad fall from a tree once. We closed her in for observation, but after 1,5 week without any sign of an attack, we let her go. She gets crazy in a cage, so we decided to take the risk, but are keeping a close eye on her. The last episode was almost a month ago.

Birds

At the end of March, the Esperanza Verde family welcomed a young male toucan, Tupak. He was handed over to Olivia by a woman in Curimana. He stays in the cage near Douwe and Olivia’s house (the release cage for parakeets) where he can enjoy a some space. He is a very greedy bird, always waiting for a new plate with fresh papayas and other fruit.

On the 12th of April 280 parakeets (all white-winged parakeets) and 4 oranged winged amazon parrots arrived. They were all confiscate in transport, going from Pucallpa direction Lima. The ministry of Fauna and Flora brought them all to us.
Most of the birds were in more or less a good shape (meaning better than the last time!).  Although all had part of their feathers pulled out, the good thing is that most have newly growing feathers and will be able to fly again in some months. They are pretty wild, in behavior, so we have high hopes for their release.
We had to make important arrangements among the cages and, unfortunately, had no other options than to put a large amount of birds in each cage.
We expected some deaths in the first week-maybe weeks, as often these animals have been lacking proper food and care for some time. And yes almost every day we found some, but now after 1,5 week it seems to have stopped. So far we have 24 parakeets died and 1 amazon parrot. We hope we have the situation under control now, as having such full cages does not give the best conditions to feed them and provide them with proper medicine.

But with all the extra care of our volunteers, feeding 3 times a day, in the beginning even 4 times and giving them enough leaves in the cages they seem to have calmed down.
Over in the Aviary, the birds have now the company of Pichu (white-eyed parakeet). He was for some time with the parakeets in the release cage, till they (as they could fly) left and Pichu was on his own. Pichu seems to adapt properly to his new environment and his new friends. Unfortunately Ruiz (the green winged macaw) started to pull his feathers out again. but he seems to befriend some of the other macaws now so we hope he will stop again.

Residents

The five tortoises (Momo and Co), which are still separated for iodine cleaning in order to avoid further fungus problems, are almost cured.
Splinter the Mata-Mata turtle had some nails and shell damages because of his pond made of cement. As there is no release site in this area, we decided to move him to the reptilepond of the reptile cage (at the moment our peccary Quintisha is also in there). That way he has more space and more chances of getting his own food.

Construction

Thanks to the large rains of those last days, the high river and some strong arms, an important amount of material (mainly bricks, large pieces of wood and metal sheets) could find its way to the clinic building area. It took some time, as the road from Curimana to Bello Horizonte was closed for big trucks, as a bridge was about to fall apart.
Now the pillars are supporting the roof and only fresh cement is missing in order to carry on the construction of the clinic.
The stone project (providing all paths with stones) is still going on, but some of the freshly built pathways have been drowned by the heavy rains of those last days. Anyway, volunteers keep working on their maintenance and hopefully the dry season will finally show up and keep everyone safe from the muddy and slippery pathways.
A newly handmade sign with Esperanza Verde is now welcoming the visitors at the port.

Volunteers

In the current of April, we went from a totally full guesthouse to a half empty due to the leaving of five of the volunteers at the same time.
Despites this massive departure the house is still full of positive energy and the ‘late’ evenings around a nice fire camp are getting more and more common.

General info

It seems we spoke a little too soon about the end of the rainy season! Some big storms and PLENTY of rain- steps turning into waterfalls and footpaths getting a little swampy. Changing weather and changing times; after the sad departure of long term volunteers Iain and Lauren there are many new faces. They will both be pleased to hear that all the new volunteers are doing a great job during this period of transition- there is a really positive work ethic and atmosphere of learning at EV and good vibes all round. The family is settling in at the new place, which looks fantastic and already feels like a home.

Monkeys

We are very happy to report that Louie the young male squirrel monkey is still doing great since being released from his cage; there has been no trouble with the wild group of squirrel monkeys who like to visit from time to time and his climbing skills are getting better and better. He is very much part of our resident troupe now and under the careful protection of Mica (adult female capuchin) he is progressing well, and spends every night outside of the cage. Shambito the young male tamarin is doing fine and spending fewer and fewer nights in his cage. The wild group of tamarins that occasionally swing by for lunch aren´t very friendly to him unfortunately, but it is possible he could one day start a new group with Alessi the female tamarin, a previous resident has not shown up anymore at Esperanza Verde.

Willow the juvenile male woolly monkey continues his campaign of mischief- pulling washing from the line, trying to steal milk from the younger monkeys, leg grabbing, face licking, basically any way he can get attention. Sadly he is a lot more interested in what the humans are up to; having lost his mother to hunters at a very young age and then been raised by humans, reintegration into the wild is a huge challenge for him. His behavior is not such a problem yet, but as he reaches maturity and develops his canine teeth, he may become too dangerous to have roaming around. This would result in having to go into a cage; if he attempted to integrate into a wild group he would certainly be killed. Our best hope is that one day EV can provide an adequate release site, away from danger.

Nikita the young female capuchin is very happy with the troupe. Though still young enough receive milk three times per day, she is developing well and getting along great with the other monkeys. Her climbing skills still have quite a way to go, but her confidence is certainly growing!

Birds

The parakeet release cage is getting emptier and emptier! This is very positive- at least half of the 16 that were ready have departed for a new life in the forest, but can still be heard not too far away. Tiliku the dusky headed parakeet, who the cage was named after, has also made his way out of the cage and into the trees. The cage name will stay the same in memory of him though!

Unfortunately last week one of our parakeet cages was not properly closed, and the monkeys were able to open the door. Thankfully this was spotted very quickly, and after a lot of squawking and pecked fingers we got the birds back inside. As many of the birds had several feathers of their wings cut before they were ready for sale on the black market, outside of our protection they would not have lasted long on the forest floor. In fact it seems one of the escapees got past us without our realizing and turned up dead just the next day. Over in the Aviary the Parrots and Macaws are mostly doing great, except for Ruiz, the large red Macaw. Unfortunately he is ripping his feathers out again (a sign of stress), although he has been seen eating well and socializing with the other birds. We are hopeful that he will settle down, as there have recently been signs of improvement. He is certainly still much healthier than when he first arrived!

Benny and the Jets (three parakeets which were separated for different health issues) have finally moved out of quarantine (in the office) and into a much larger cage, where they look a lot happier and will get to stretch their wings a bit more. The quarantine cages are already full again though; from the large parakeet cage (around 40 birds) we are beginning the process of putting the birds through a stay in quarantine, where after being weighed and examined will receive medicine to remove any parasites and keep the birds healthy. With so many birds in one cage it is important to go through this process to make sure the birds are in the best possible condition until they are ready for release.

Residents

Rincay the tapir and his good friend Pepito the tortoise are doing great, no complaints from either of them about the rainy weather. In other reptilian news, Momo and Co (five other resident tortoises) have had trouble with fungus growing on their shells, but after regular cleaning with iodine the problem is much better, and they are eating well. Watching the tortoise feeding frenzy is ever popular with the volunteers! Splinter the Mata-Mata (definitely the strangest looking turtle you will ever see) was recently removed from his pond for a checkup and we are glad to see all is well. Too much handling and human contact has caused great stress on him in the past, resulting in loss of appetite for some time, so now he is being disturbed as little as possible and happily he is already settled and eating well again after his examination.

Missing: Ruben, Tortoise. Last seen in cage. Likes lettuce and cabbage. Have you seen this Animal? These reptiles are known to dig holes and hide; in fact the daily locating of other Tortoises Houdini and Pepito can take a lot of time if they don’t want to be found. However after a thorough search of his enclosure Ruben (a tortoise brought in recently by the Ministry) is definitely gone. Later we discovered that the gate, whilst seeming secure, could actually be pushed open enough from the inside to allow a very determined Tortoise to slip through. Tortoises are highly prized for their meat among the locals, who don´t see a protected animal, but a delicious snack. The local population of Tapirs and Peccaries has also all but vanished or fled the area due to hunting, as their meat fetches a high price in Pucallpa.

In Sloth news, Elmo is all good. He was absent for a little longer than usual recently, but that’s not so surprising considering his speed ranges from slow to very slow. Enjoying his green beans and sweet potatoes as always.

Construction

Now that the house for the managers just needs a few finishing touches, work at the clinic has been progressing well- the pillars are up and after a lot of sweat and splinters the breams for the frame are going up too. EV is hosting more volunteers than ever now, so smaller projects like making new stools and bed tables, as well as preparing future bedrooms, have also been going on. With the recent downpours, the pathway in front of the Bodega is gradually turning into an impenetrable bog, so a new drainage system has been put in place which will hopefully prevent the same problem happening when the next rainy season comes around. Pathway maintenance has also been essential with the wet conditions, and the volunteers have had a wonderful time collecting and carrying fresh rocks from the river for this purpose!

Volunteers

As mentioned above, we had to say a very fond farewell to English long term volunteers Iain and Lauren. The time, care and love they put into their stay here is immediately missed. Not just because of their valuable experience in taking care of the animals (and other volunteers!) but their fantastic attitude and warm hearts. Lauren has put together a wonderful video for EV including interviews, volunteers in action and some great shots of the animals. It should be uploaded in the near future (watch this space!). EV wishes them all the best and hopes to see them again in the future.

Thankfully Tobi from Germany, as the next most experienced, has picked up the slack admirably; teaching, helping and encouraging the newcomers. We are very grateful to him for doing so well during this time of change.

The good news is that our two new long term volunteers have arrived! A very warm welcome to Josh from Texas, USA and Iris from the Netherlands. Josh is studying Environmental Science and has come here seeking voluntary experience in the field, and Iris is here to complete the practical side of her Wildlife Management course. They are both settling in really well and we hope they find everything they are looking for here. Good luck to them both.

For future volunteers, whether you have organized your stay here yet or are still planning, we look forward to meeting you. Any luxury items (your definition of luxury will change shortly on arrival!) like chocolate, spices, magazines etc. are hugely appreciated. Watching Iain´s face light up at the sight of Cumin sent from home was quite special!

GENERAL INFORMATION

As the raining season is slowly coming to an end now, the weather is changing from gloomy and long rain showers to sunnier days week after week. This is not only bringing a smile to the face of the people at Esperanza Verde but also the animals seem to enjoy taking a sunbath during the day.

ANIMALS

 
• Monkeys

After a time of observation and deworming in a small cage, the new young male squirrel monkey Louie was transferred to a bigger cage outside. For the first time he could establish some contact with the other monkeys, which all were pretty curious about the new member of the family and spent a lot of time around his cage.

After 3 weeks Louie could be let out and could finally explore the outside world and join the other monkeys hanging around in the trees. The release went really well, Mica (our oldest female capuchin monkey) took care of Louie and carried him around on her back the whole day. In the evening Louie returned to his cage and spent the night inside. The next morning he was let out again and is since staying with either Mica or Camila, our female resident squirrel monkey.
The two tamarins Alessi (adult female) and Shambito (young male) were sleeping on and off in their cage at night. They started  to spend several days and nights outside in the jungle on their own.
At some point Alessi disappeared and didn’t return. One of the workers  spotted her in the jungle recently. She looked healthy and happy and did not want to follow him back home. For now she has been missing for more than a week. It might be she finally found a place in a wild group, as a volunteer noticed a second wild group while walking in the forest. Shambito was calling for her in the first day, but she never responded, and he now hangs out mainly with the woolly monkeys.

 
• Other mammals

After the passing away of Xena, the older female peccary Quintisha seems to get used again to being by herself again.
After some problems with vomiting, Rincay the tapir, seems as happy as always again and is enjoying life together with his old friend Pepito the tortoise.
Also Elmo (sloth) is doing fine and hanging around his sleeping box most of the days. If he’s around during feeding time the volunteers always enjoy feeding him a tasty carrot chip by hand.

 
• Birds

The parakeets which were able to fly and were brought to a release cage finally found the opening in the cage. At first one got out, and as he was staying on the cage, we put him inside again after several hours. Then at some point more went out, and they seemed to have found the trees in the surrounding, and maybe even some already joined the wild groups. There is a lot of fruit and seeds in the forest at the moment so it is a good time for them to get accustomed to living in the wild again.
The new parakeets (a group of originally 46) maintained their big appetite and seem pretty happy in their enclosure. Because most of them had their feathers cut on one wing it will take a lot more time till they will be able to fly again properly and hopefully eventually can be released. One died in the first days, and 3 are still under observation.

FOREST

The planting of all the last seedlings (1200) has finished now and a volunteer is going with Machico to take all the coordinates of their location to be able to put them into the databank. Like this we can easily find them again and check how the new trees are growing from time to time.

CONSTRUCTION

The construction of the new manager’s house is finally finished! Everyone has been very busy in the last few weeks with finishing last jobs, as painting the walls, attaching the mosquito wire, sandpapering, varnishing the wood etc. In the meantime the family has already started to pack their stuff and move all the things from their old rooms in the volunteer house to their new home. Many things need to get finished still, like shelves, some mosquito mesh for the windows, tables etc., but the family had to make room for volunteers, so decided to move in already.
To inaugurate their new house the family gave a dinner to which all the volunteers and also the workers together with their family were invited.
Now that the new house is finished, the work at the construction of the new clinic can be continued again with fresh motivation.

VOLUNTEERS

Life at Esperanza Verde is really busy, as new volunteers are arriving almost every week, which is not only exciting for the monkeys but also for all the volunteers and the family.
As always there are a lot of activities going on. The volunteers are enjoying their free time here with playing card games in the evening, fishing and bathing in the river and spotting wild animals and tasting jungle fruit on walks through the forest guided by Machico, one of the workers.
As one of the highlights the volunteers went together on a trip upstream to the big waterfall Regalia.
Last Friday a big party took place at the volunteers house. Before dinner all got ready for the party and dressed up nicely, the ladies even put on some makeup for once. There was good music, tasty cocktails, everyone chatted and danced until late in the evening and had a really fun time.