June 2023 Newsletter
Getting tortoises ready for release, enclosure maintenance, intensive care of monkeys, enrichment for animals and human life…….and still time for celebrations!
Animals
Maiko (juvenile large-headed brown capuchin) was ready for freedom after some adjustment time in an outside enclosure. Young and inexperienced as he is, Daytona and Rayka (female large-headed brown capuchins)took him into their care when he was let out. With two females like that, he is sure to get all the care he needs to find his feet!
A wild three-toed sloth was climbing his way to safety, from a forest fire, onto a ‘moto-carro’ (also known as a tuk tuk). The owner rescued him and thanks to the convincing powers of Puck (volunteer and part of the big EVI family), the sloth was released again in the forest surrounding EV. Of course, not after we all had a good peek! All smiles here.
Susy Utzinger Orphan Hospital
A group of volunteers were walking around Curimana, enjoying their day off, not a speck of animal poo in sight. Sweet relief, they thought. Well, that didn’t last long as a local found them and entrusted them with a young animal. Thus shopping for sweets had to wait and the small female agouti, Kampari, was safely put in one of their rucksacks! Time for this agouti to go back to her natural habitat. With so many tortoises in quarantine, Kampari is staying in the clinic. Tame as she is, being raised in a household, she enjoys all the enrichment and attention we can give her.
After surviving a fer-de-lance bite the scarlet macaw, Wanda, was moved to the new Elmo aviary addition. Rufo (red and green macaw) who has been lonely for so long sure enjoyed this as Wanda sure triggered something! They’re grooming each other and sleeping together (not like that…). Finally, some happiness for Rufo and Wanda. And, who cares about difference in species when love is in the air?
Zuna (yellow crowned Amazon), was only shortly back in the big aviary Elmo, as she had to be admitted to the clinic again with a nasty breast wound. Healing will take some time, but luckily, she doesn’t mind the extra attention, making sweet sounds when we bring her food or enrichments.
After feeling much better, Morena (female adult woolly monkey) went out again. The treatment worked and she seemed to have gained some self-confidence. She is playing more with others, like Maida (juvenile female howler) and Manok (juvenile male woolly).
But something was off with Keska, (juvenile female woolly). You might remember her remarkable recovery after a head trauma, a year ago. The symptoms were similar to Morena’s, but Keska took it way worse. Quick action was taken with the whole team here and the help of Philipp Zerbe (who was involved in saving Keska before). Within 48 hours she improved considerably and after following the same treatment we gave Morena, Keska could get out again after just 2 weeks!
Yuna, the baby female night monkey now spends her days in the clinic, so everybody can help out with the intensive care she needs. Late afternoon Arthur picks her up to return to her cage in his cabin where he can keep an ear and eye on her during the night. It is safe to say that the volunteer team is very happy with this new system, as she is very, very cute.
Quarantine
After a lot of intense vegetable cutting, many faeces examinations, deparasitation treatments and more faeces checks, the tortoises in the quarantine were ready for release. To avoid them being easily spotted we released them bit by bit. The director of the GERFFS (Ministry of Flora and Fauna Pucallpa), came to officially launch the release process (see their video: https://fb.watch/lsfTtYBDsp/?mibextid=2Rb1fB).
And if we are worried it will get ever boring doing the quarantine… think again!
The same day the release was initiated a beautiful Harris´s hawk arrived. She (we think female) was caught near Pucallpa while hunting chicken. This is not a local species and the ring around her foot gave us a clue to where her life began. In Peru, this species is legally bred in captivity and trained for flying. So, she must have had or still has an owner somewhere. We are looking into all this while keeping her happy and busy. It is a different kind of thing, working with a trained animal like this. Strange at a rescue centre, but also beautiful in its own way. Never a dull day in the jungle!
Other newcomers are an anaconda, a yellow-footed tortoise, and a young squirrel monkey. The anaconda was very recently taken from the wild. So, we aren’t surprised he refuses the food given to him – a quick release is already in the plans. The tortoise does not look too good and we hope she will respond well to our care. The young female squirrel monkey, Mina, was kept for some time in a small cage, resulting in very sticky, dirty fur, and the top of her tail missing. Cold and dirty she was happy to climb directly to the safety of Olivia’s arms. After a gentle wash, she is already looking better, and with some good nutrition and care, she will look like a normal squirrel monkey soon enough again. For now, she is under Olivia’s supervision at the family house.
Volunteer life
Would you believe us if we tell you we had 15°C in the jungle this month? Well… it’s true! Every year cold air masses from Antarctica go through Peru and other neighbouring countries. It’s believed that this phenomenon reaches so far north because of deforestation as much of the vegetative cover that once acted as a barrier has been cut devastatingly cut down. It gave a strange ´European´ winter vibe in the jungle which made the team nostalgic, even some Christmas songs were heard coming from the Bodega.
Luckily by the 24th of June, the weather got sunny and warm again, so the local holiday San Juan could be celebrated at the waterfall. As tradition prescribes, we ate ´Juanes´ for lunch; rice wrapped in banana leaves to represent the head of Saint San Juan. We also enjoyed a nice swim and some relaxing time in the sun.
Intern Jonna invited us all to her birthday party with the theme: the letter ‘J’. Well, that got everyones’ imagination racing…. dressed up as….. Well, let´s see how good you are at recognizing all the different Js in the picture.
Our lovely group is slowly reducing as a lot of volunteers are reaching the end of their stay. New people are already filling the ranks and assuring a great team for the coming weeks. We also have the pleasure of welcoming back Carlotta, ex-volunteer and member of EVI (partly responsible for EV´s social media), enjoying her 3rd stay in the jungle.
We still have some open spots from next month though, so if you were thinking of coming… don´t hesitate to get in touch.
¡Hasta próxima amigos!
