One of the sloths I'll be working with
I enjoyed some VERY fresh coconut water this afternoon. This had just fallen out of the tree!
One of the spider monkeys playing with the enrichment we made
Greetings
from the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center! I arrived here at about 9:30 last
night and pretty much fell right into bed, so I didn’t really get a good look
at the place until this morning. The main thing I’ve noticed so far- this
country is so green! Seriously, there’s greenery everywhere!
After
breakfast was served for the volunteers at seven this morning, we had the first
of two daily volunteer meetings, led by one of the volunteer supervisors, a
woman named Erandi. There are a good amount of volunteers at this place- about
thirty of us in total. Like with the other places I’ve volunteered, we’re from
all over the place! I’ve met volunteers from Canada, China, Finland, Portugal,
Australia, Chile and more.
When the
meeting was over, the other volunteers broke up into their groups to go work,
while Erandi led me and a couple of other new volunteers on a tour of the
entire center. It’s a big place, and is home to quite a few different species,
including three-toed sloths, turtles, howler monkeys, spider monkeys,
capuchins, a marmoset, and more. She went over the details about each animal as
we went, and the entire tour ended up lasting nearly two hours. She also asked
the new volunteers where we were from, what we did back home, and if we had any
experience like this before. When she heard about my experience at the zoo, as
well as in South Africa and Bolivia, she immediately asked if I would speak to
the other volunteers about all of that after lunch, and also if she could put
me in charge of enrichment for the spider monkeys, both of which I of course
said yes to.
When the
tour was over we got the rest of the morning to ourselves before lunch at noon.
At 1:30 there was the second daily meeting of the day, in which Erandi
introduced me to the other volunteers and asked me to talk about my animal
experience. She then asked me to talk about the importance of enrichment for
animals in captivity, especially very intelligent animals like primates. After
the meeting, I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out a few of the sloth
enclosures, then creating some enrichment for the spider monkeys. This center
has limited resources, but we created some places to hide the monkeys’ food
using coconuts, mesh netting, and rope. The monkeys definitely seemed interested
and entertained by them!
I’m
currently sitting here in one of the volunteer common areas writing up this
post. Work is done for the day, and dinner will be served in about half an
hour. I’ve been here in Costa Rica for less than 24 hours, and it’s already
shaping up to be an amazing trip! This post’s food for thought: “Wandering
re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the
universe.”- Anatole France
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