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Ok, maybe not tigers but certainly lions and bears and sometimes much nearer than anticipated.
On Monday 11th I was picked up at 9.30am from Quito by taxi and we headed off in the direction of Tambillo, a small town about an hour away from Quito. The journey was beautiful, lots of green mountains, blue sky, a whole view of Quito and greatly appreciated flat roads. After 45 mins the taxi driver suddenly took a sharp right up a cobbly, steep road where we continued to climb for another 20 mins. As we drove through farm land we soon entered a small lane and the taxi driver pointed and said ´Santa Martha aqui.´ Santa Martha is a shelter set up for animals that were kept illegally as pets, animals that zoos have no room for, or animals waiting to be placed in rehabilitation centres and for those who don´t know, for the next four weeks I´ll be working as a volunteer at Santa Martha and officially known as Dr. Dolittle.
As we pulled up to the entrance I was met by a very smiley Dalma (the project coordinator) and three large dogs (yey, a good start). Dalma immediately asked
if I was allergic to cats or if I was vegetarian, and when I replied no to either she yelped in happiness and pointed me in the direction of the top house which I was to share with 5 other people. I met Nancy from Canada, Jemina from Finland and Noam from Israel, along with Russ and Michelle from Canada who had already been there for a week. We had an hour to chat and get to know each other and were then summoned to put on waterproofs and wellies and head outside the house for our first initiation meeting.
As Dalma told us about general house instructions and the afternoon plans you really couldn´t help but be distracted by what was around. On one side was a glass enclosure with a tiny Tamarin monkey jumping about trying to see what we were doing and behind Dalma, no more than 5 metres was a huge enclousure filled with three female lions and one male. To say I was surprised was a complete understatement. Later that day I also found out that our bedroom was no less than 10 metres away from the lions. Every night we are woken by
4 lions roaring and warning other lions away from their territories.... it´s quite magical but also a little eerry when you realise there´s only a small piece of wire between you and them.
Following the meeting I needed a quick wee and found the bathroom. As I opened the bathroom door and walked in I was met by a large Collie sitting just by the bath. So thinking it was normal I carried on with my wee with the dog just watching... I soon found out that no, this wasn´t normal but actually the dog often gets herself locked in the bathroom and can´t get out until someone comes in. It was the source of a few giggles for the rest of the day.
After our meeting the tour commenced. The main base of the shelter is based on a slope and is filled with all types of enclosures. Spider monkeys, parrots that shout Hola, Coatis (big noises, big tails), a baby Ocelot called Leah (a wild cat), kestrels, porcupines, 3 Galapagos tortoises. It was just crazy! Dalma explained day to day procedures of cleaning and feeding and how each of the animals had got to the shelter
and what their future plans were. Thinking that was the end of the tour, Dalma then led us down some very steep and muddy paths to the lower part of the shelter. Here we met a huge bear, a puma, 3 more ocelots, a huge bear and 4 more lions.
Each animal has it´s own story, some happy but most really sad and awful and yes, within an hour I already had tears in my eyes. One 18 year old lion had been kept in a cage not much bigger than itself for it´s entire life and used as an exhibition in a circus. It had previously been rescued from the circus by the shelter but due to the corruption of the Ecuadorian government the circus had paid the government off to get the lion back. Although late, luckily the lion made it´s way back to the shelter a week prior to my arrival. This time now blind in one eye because of bad manhandling and unable to walk much because of the limited space it´s had. Dalma said she also thought he was incredibly lonely so asked us to pass the lion whenever we could during our time
Evil bird trying to sneak into the kitchen
He hated all women but said hello in a very posh English accent. Obviously, not learnt from me! and spend some time with him.
The bear had a funny story though and was known as an escape artist, escaping from a number of zoos already. He´s now known as Houdini and we´re just waiting to find the cage empty one morning on his feed. He´s huge and over 6 foot when standing but still looks almost huggable. He also happens to be the most vegeterian type of bear in the world so we won´t worry too much.
After the tour, work began.
The afternoons shift is from 4pm - 6pm where groups are split between mammals, small birds and large birds and whatever other tasks may need doing. So yes, lots of poo cleaning, emptying and filling waterbowls, checking on the animals welfare, cutting grass for rabbits etc. One of my favourite afternoon jobs but probably most frustrating is putting the turtles to bed. We have 20 to find each afternoon and with some no bigger than your palm it becomes pretty much like a treasure hunt.
The morning shift is from 8am until 1pm and can include anything from preparing the tons of food that the animals eat on a daily basis, chopping
fruit, vegetables, more cleaning up poo (lots of poo), digging holes top put poo in (4 metres deep I tell you!), cutting grass, giving medicine to the baby Ocelots, trying to persuade monkey´s to move from one enclosure to another and then have them scream at you when they don´t get their way, avoiding parrots that don´t like women, persuading parrots to get out of the kitchen, feeding the owl with live mice.... all sorts.
It´s the hardest, toughest and dirtiest work I´ve ever had to do. You´re constantly digging, lifting, walking up and down hills, crouching into small cages avoiding teeth, claws and poo, scrubbing, hacking grass, cutting wood etc and at altitude, it´s 10 times harder. I´ve learnt to use a machete, I´ve made new poles for the monkey enclosure, dug 2 metre holes, chopped up huge branches, carried huge branches up massive hills, hand fed Ocelots and owls and so much more. It´s simply exhausting and by 9pm we´re always ready for bed. But the house is a great place to chill and we each take turns making dinner each night. I´ve already introduced the Polish meatloaf (thanks mum) and it went down very well!
Despite a vigarous regime each day and waking up this Saturday morning feeling like I´ve been run over by a bus, it´s great that something different happens each day and it´s hilarious to watch the animals on a day to day basis and getting to know their characters. The first week has been information overload and the next three weeks are certainly going to be tough. We´ve already watched a baby calf being fed to a lion and grown to understand that the cute furry little bunnies are infact emergency food.
I´ve also learnt that the bigger the animal, the bigger and smellier the poo and when we cheered that the baby ocelot is now passing hard poos in our round up meeting yesterday I now understand that poo is going to be a popular topic over the next three weeks.
I feel like there is so much more to tell you but hopefully with photos I can explain it better!
So far it´s been much better and much harder than I could have ever expected but I´m enjoying every second. Especially the hot shower at the end of the day :o)
(and no, before anyone
says, I haven´t turned into an eco warrior, hippy, vegetarian or grown dreads or adopted a monkey.... there´s still time for that)
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