June seventh: Today was my first day on the bears and tortoises rotation, which is a really easy section. To make a long story short, yesterday two volunteers were chosen out of the twenty or so here to work with Ajayu (pronounced Ahayu), the blind spectacled bear that lives here. I’ll be here for a good chunk of time, so I was one of the two volunteers that were picked. Basically that means that I’ll be going over to his enclosure multiple times a day to feed and spend some time with him. Since today was also my first full day working with Ajuya, it was a day full of bear action. Candy, the vet here at Senda Verde, decided that it would be best if Robyn (the other volunteer working with Ajayu) and I took turns feeding him, since two new people there at the same time might scare him too much. Robyn and I decided that today I would feed him breakfast and dinner, then tomorrow we’d switch. So after eating my own breakfast, I met Candy at the prep room at 8:30 and we headed to Ajayu’s enclosure. “Today I’m going to have you give him the food.” She told me as we walked. “Talk to him as you come up to him, and while you’re feeding him, so you don’t scare him and so that he starts to recognize your voice. Right now, you’re still very new to him. As he hears your voice more and more while you feed him, he’ll begin to trust you. The first few times, he’ll probably still be nervous, so it may take him longer to eat.”
When we got to his enclosure, Candy peaked in to see that he wasn’t in the same place where he’d been the previous evening. “That little nest where he was yesterday is his favorite spot.” She said. After we called out his name a few times, Ajayu poked his head out from behind a little structure up on the hill of his enclosure. Once we knew where he was, Candy unlocked the gate and we stepped inside. “Bread first, because it has the antibiotics.” She said as she handed me two small pieces of bread, with some sappy looking substance between them. “Make sure you talk as you approach him, so you don’t scare him.” With a nod and a deep breath, I began to climb up the hill toward this blind, traumatized bear that could rip me to shreds. Did I mention I was holding his food in my hands?
“Ajayu…” I called hesitantly as I came closer. “You hungry, boy?” He lifted his head in my direction and stuck his nose right at me. I continued to talk as I brought the bread- and therefore, my hand- closer to his face. I watched in amazement as he took the bread right out of my hand with a level of tenderness I never would’ve expected from a bear. “What a beautiful boy you are.”
After eating about half of one piece of bread, he stopped, rested his head on his paws, and began to make a moaning sound. “He’s nervous.” Called Candy from down the hill. He wasn’t the only one. “He’s just not used to you yet. Just keep gently talking to him. He has to eat all of the bread before we move on.”
Listening to that moaning sound, I remembered what Vicky (the owner of this sanctuary) had told me about him being the first spectacled bear she’d heard vocalize. This definitely wasn’t the kind of sound I’d expect a bear to make, and it was sad to see how my new presence made him so nervous because of how people had treated him in the past. After a few minutes of me speaking gently to him as he moaned, he picked his head back up and finished the bread. Candy climbed up the hill to me and handed me a metal bowl with four pieces of some kind of white cheese. “Give them to him one at a time.”
With another deep breath, I grabbed a piece of the cheese and reached down toward Ajayu’s head. Every evolutionary instinct in my brain was shouting at me to run away, telling me what an idiot I was for putting my hand so close to a bear’s mouth. But I made those instincts shut up and, yet again, Ajayu took the food out of my hand very gently.
I spent about half an hour inside Ajayu’s enclosure, feeding him his breakfast right out of my hand, and last time I checked, I still have all my fingers. “He was really nervous when we first came in, but he got more relaxed as time passed.” Candy told me as we were walking back. “He’s just barely beginning to trust you. You have to work slowly with him. But that was progress.”
When we got back to the main area, I met up with the other volunteers in my rotation, who were just heading to the tortoise area. “How was it?” asked Robyn, who’d be working with him at lunchtime. Robyn didn’t have a lot of experience with animals, and I knew she was really nervous about working with Ajayu.
“It was really nice.” I said. “I was the one to feed him this time. You’ll probably get to do that at lunch.” Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “Don’t worry about it.” I said with a smile. “Just be slow, and remember to talk to him.”
After we’d spread the tortoises’ food on their tray, I sat down on the stone wall of their pin, to relax and watch the many tortoises enjoy their colorful salad. Almost as soon as I did, one of the spider monkeys climbed out of the tree above me and came to sit right on my lap and wrap her arms around my chest. I was instantly reminded of South Africa, feeling the little baboons in the nursery do the exact same thing. Just like in South Africa, I began to groom and gently talk to this friendly spider monkey. After about ten minutes on my lap, she decided that there were more interesting things around, and walked off.
The next adventure came at noon, when it was time to give the bears their snack. The food for the animals is often carried in baskets from the prep room to the enclosures. The baskets have a lid that can be latched shut, but the monkeys in the area have learned that they have food in them. There were several spider monkeys around when we left, including Tinto, the most aggressive monkey here at Senda Verde. He’s bitten several people enough to draw blood in just the week since I’ve been here- two of the volunteers currently have bandages on their faces, courtesy of Tinto. Sabastian, a new volunteer from London, was given the job of carrying the basket, since the monkeys are less likely to bother guys (damn sexist primates). As we were walking, two spider monkeys began to follow us and jumped on top of the basket of food. Another one jumped on top of me and began to climb around. “That’s Tinto.” Said Cat, the most experienced volunteer in the group. Great, I thought. But, even as Tinto began to climb around and grab my face, I was surprised at how calm I felt. I really don’t think he’s a mean monkey. He’s just really excitable. Don’t laugh, don’t show teeth, don’t move too fast, I told myself. I stood there, allowing my body to serve as Tinto’s tree, until Cat got one of the staff members to come and get the monkeys to leave.
After lunch, I came back to my room to begin writing this post and hang out until the next bear shift, which wasn’t until five. Since I knew that I had another session with Ajayu at six, I figured I’d go ahead and bring my flashlight with me when I went to the next shift. Senda Verde is located in a valley, so the sun sets pretty early here, and walking back to my room after dark without a light isn’t a good idea, especially with the uneven terrain and the possibility of walking past Beethoven, the psychopathic dog that lives here (he charged me the other day, but that’s another story).
After a really easy half hour of feeding Aruma, the other male spectacled bear that lives here, and cleaning his exhibit, I headed back to the prep room to meet Candy for the evening session with Ajayu. Once again, it was my job to give him the food. I already felt much more confident and comfortable than the previous evening, but I constantly reminded myself that he’s a wild, very powerful animal. I called his name a few times as I climbed up the hill with the bowl of porridge, and he also seemed more relaxed as he began to lap from the bowl like a dog. It was funny to watch him use his paws to hold the bowl in front of him, and when it was almost empty he buried his entire snout in it to get the last bits. When it was empty, I placed a new bowl with some fruit in front of him while carefully pulling the empty bowl away. I had to reach right between his huge paws to get the bowl, and as I was pulling it away my hand lightly brushed his fur, but he didn’t seem to notice. I let out the breath that I didn’t even notice I’d been holding, and Candy and I left Ajayu to his fruit and headed back to the prep room.
There’s plenty more news from the previous few days here at the sanctuary, but I figured this blog post is already super long, so I’ll leave it at that for now! This post’s food for thought: “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”- Muhammad Ali
No comments:
Post a Comment