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Published: October 8th 2006
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Painting a game
Yes, one of the volunteers projects was to paint a game on the floor of the education area. Fun if you´re an artist Hello all,
Been out of contact for a couple of weeks ´cos I was working at our second animal rescue centre - Centro De Rescate Las Pumas.
We arrived there two weeks ago after leaving Tamarindo, and met up with our friend Jo who had been working there two months. Well, the people were lovely and we did have some great animal experiences. Spending time with Jaguars and Pumas was unforgettable, it was just a shame that the first ones we´d ever seen in the flesh were those with the common ´rescued from private ownership and kept in the same enclosure at the rescue centre for years´background, and had developed profound stereotypies..
The work was not at all what we expected either. Since the founder passed away a few years back the centre had to be legalised as a foundation (trust) and so much beauracracy followed... complete with the policies that eat away at our fun! So yes, volunteers were not allowed contact with any of the animals except rabbits and deer. Needless to say we got incredibly bored with the other work - painting signs, guiding visitors (although this was great for my spanish), general maintenance and office work.
Grey Fox
Two female grey foxes live at Las Pumas.
They were rescued as cubs and became too dependant on humans.. At first the staff seemed enthusiastic about a few basic behavioural enrichment things we suggested we could make, but communication lines were non-exisitant and nothing ever seemed to happen!
I really shouldn´t complain too much. As I say, everyone was lovely - as latino people always are - and being able to settle, do laundry, and have meals actually cooked for us (amazing!) for 2 weeks was great.
On top of this I did have a couple of interesting experiences with a rescued baby howler monkey and baby sloth in the quarantine facility, which Jo took care of on weekends and which the vet asked me to help with when she went away.
It was on a day when the vet was in San José that the baby howler monkey was brought to Las Pumas by an american scientist. At 7am, when we were just about to head to breakfast I was called upon as translator by Manuel, one of the keepers, to find this scientist standing there with a very exhausted and weak looking monkey about 20cm long (we estimated around 6 weeks old? tell me if I´m wrong). The baby had been picked up by a
Juvenile Howler Monkey
Part of a wild troop that hung out at Las Pumas. Why not? the food is always good and right on schedule local man who saw its mother drop it during a fight with another adult monkey the night before and found it still there the next morning.
It seemed Jo, Ali and I were the best qualified to handle it on site so we contacted the vet, who couldn´t return, and kept it going with baby milk formula every 3 hours until it was decided what to do with it. It perked up by about 12pm and was toileting well, drinking and moving around. Unfortunately, when we checked it again at 1pm it had died. It had a fairly distended belly and may have sustained internal injuries from the fall (externally it looked perfectly normal), but its pulse was strong and steady so internal bleeding can´t have been major. It was pretty strange that it had perked up first too.
I say unfortunately it died but, no, probably not. The last thing Las Pumas needs is another hand-raised monkey living outside a normal troop, and it couldn´t have been realeased on its own after hand-raising. Previous baby monkey rescues have been about as successful as this one - with all but one dying of parasitic infections. Oh, and one was accidentally
left out in the Puma cubs run and was eaten...
Of course, the common answer is that the mother left it behind because it was unwell anyway.
Now, the baby two-toed sloth story is a little different. He arrived at Las Pumas after being ´rescued´from dogs in a nearby town, who had attacked his mother. He was in good condition with no injuries, but was still pretty young and not fully weaned. Since the vet was leaving again, she put me in charge of him. This meant feeding every 3 hours again (thankfully not through the night though), with goats milk and apple.
It was so interesting and exciting being able to work with this strange animal. Sloths really are as lazy as you think, just hanging loose and falling asleep every 2 seconds. This baby (we called him squint for his squinty eyes) would take about one hour to drink 50ml of milk! Oh, and they do like to do everything upside down (of course their organs are arranged for it), although squint was still partly at the stage where they lie belly down on their mother (substituted with a teddy bear in this case). He had amazing
Tiggy
Male Jaguar at Las Pumas grip too, and very strong limbs which he used to pull everything (including my fingers) to his mouth to bite rather than stretching his neck.
After a few days, he was taken to a biologist with ´sloth specialities´ to look after. Sloths are a difficult species to keep in captivity as their diet is hard to get right unless you have the right tree species growing in their enclosure. So I do hope he becomes a good candidate for release soon.
Many of the rescued animals at Las Pumas could have been released had their been available release sites in appropriate ecosystems. Unfortunately Las Pumas is not situated in a National Park like PROFELIS was, and the management of their rescued animals does not lend itself to future release - with baby ocelots being fed biscuits and cream in a bowl at the same time every day, the quarantine facility being right next the farm and the volunteer house etc.
I will tell you all more when we get back since this is getting way too long!
Lorne, please feel free to use this for anything you want. At the moment only my 30 or so contacts are
Squint
Baby sloth reading it
I hope everyone is well
Love Catherine
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Annette
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New Zealand
Do you ever miss New Zealand?