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Published: August 12th 2006
The view from swing bridge at Profelis
We walk this swing bridge to work everyday. The view is a beautiful wake up callHey... well I've been here a week. Its hard to get access to good computers here so I'll take the opportunity to get some pictures up here.
Just hanging out at a surfy town this weekend. Work at Profelis, centre for wild cats, is such an awesome experience but pretty tiring. We're busy doing behaviour research for ocelot and margay since there isn't much published on these cats at all, and we have the opportunity to introduce some novel behavioural enrichment and measure its effects.
Its a great challenge discussing the ins and outs of a project with the directors in spanish but we manage! They are really appreciative and cooperative here, and I'm happy to say the standard of animal welfare is very high.
Actually, the jaguarundi stand out the most in the centre. The three of them are the most aggressive animals I have EVER seen. They would make an incredibly interesting case study actually, to investigate whether we can divert some of that aggression or minimise the cause. Unfortunately Profelis is winding to a close and the cats will all be relocated to a place up north (which I'm told has great facilities and enlcosures). Ali and I
margay
I think this is Isis. She'll stick close to were we stand, but will always growl blue murder! are at Profelis for 4 weeks and it would probably take that long to habituate the jaguarundi to our presence, let alone allow us to work with them!
Its likely a major cause for their overt aggression (though they are naturally aggressive cats) is the fact they're kept i close proximity. In seperate enclosures but all adjacent to each other. Likely pretty stressful for such a solitary species.
Well, I hope you're all interested in things like this. Jaguarundi are just so fascinating!!
I'm endeavouring to learn the names of the costa rican wildlife. You haven't seen biodiversity until you've seen costa rica it seems. I'm sure it will only get better and better as I move into the amazon, but it is RICH here.
We're living in an almost tree house at Profelis, and are surrounded by butterflies, ants, mozzies of course, bats, birds, toads and howler monkeys in the distance!
I hear there is a puma close by at the moment too.
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Becs
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Jealous!!!!
Awsome pics! It looks beautiful! What a beautiful cat! Hope you guys are using your mozzie repellent! xxx