Progress, Preventative Medicine, and Construction Projects at Bioparque Amaru: Help Fund Us!

Captain´s Log, Day 47: In the past week, we have built two flight cages, reorganized quarantine to separate birds and mammals, rescued a deer and two more eagles, created floor plans and models for the aviary and vet clinic, and are due to start construction for the clinic on Monday, October 29th. Morale is high, dreams are big, and funds are sorely needed.

Take a look at my previous post, En La Frontera de Conservaciòn, if you really want a good background about Bioparque Amaru: I'm busy asking every conservation-minded organization to support Bioparque Amaru's fundraiser on Razoo! Check it out here: Build a Vet Clinic and Large Flight Aviary for Bioparque Amaru.

Full link for copying purposes: https://www.razoo.com/br/causes/Build-A-Vet-Clinic-And-Large-Flight-Aviary-For-Bioparque-Amaru

Friend me on Facebook, Nikki Becich, and check out my public project video here!

In the meantime, here are some photos on some of the projects and progress at Amaru! 

This is a model of what we are planning for the larger flight aviary at Amaru. We want to build one for our Condor breeding program, which will encompass a large section of the zoo's property (note the three other exhibits encompasses for Jabali and insects!), and another one for all the rescued parrots near our cafeteria. We need funds!

Mini-Amanda looks on at the model for the paramo wolf exhibit, which is already under construction and should be done in the next month!

The efforts to improve the labspace in Amaru's reptile conservation center are going splendidly. 

These little guys are loving the new automated misters! 

The new draining systems, too! 

This is the current aviary for the twelve Parrotlets on exhibit (two native Ecuadorian species). It's only one of the many exhibits of birds we'd like to move to a larger Aviary! They need more light and flight space, and higher perches to escape marauding rats!

We built a roof for Quarantine, so the new boots, bodysuits, and masks for all the workers can remain in the building for each entry.

We have plans to build new roosts with heat lamps for the toucans!

We also have plans to give our Spoonbills and ducks a new pool for their room. They are in sore need of one that is seperate from their feeding troughs!

With the birds moved out of the Aviary, we could expand facilities for some of the mammals that we can't keep on exhibit, like this capuchin who was raised with dogs and is overly aggressive to conspecifics. 

Digression: nursing lion cubs are adorable. 

He's almost a month old, now!

We started to re-shuffle all our birds, with plans to build two flight cages for the eagles we've recently acquired through the Environmental Ministry. We have since built those cages, and moved the pheasants away from the rest of the mammals in the mammal room. 

Last Monday, Edwin, Wilmer, and Christian took down a bunch of the old quarantine cages and moved our residents to larger, newer cages for the new bird room!

There was a lot of singing the next day. Everyone seemed pretty happy with the new housing arrangements: more conspecifics together, and more space! 

Amidst all the excitement, the pheasants laid an egg! Looking forward to getting these guys into an environment where we could begin a breeding program!

The juvenile Margay got an upgrade, too!

Though we're off to a good start, there's a long way to go. 

We took an inventory of the zoo's drugs and supplements for the first time in a few years, and ended up discarding a large portion of the medicines we had, as they were expired. We'll have to replace them in the near future, which is hard to do in Ecuador. Many U.S. pharm. companies do not ship all their drugs to South America. A re-organization of nutritional regimes is one of the many things we are attempting in the coming weeks. We were able to contact a supplier of chickens, ducks, and rats not too far from the zoo, and will now be getting more regular shipments, instead of supplementing with the cow and horsemeat we feed our mammalian carnivores. 

We are trying to be sustainable in our preventative medicine planning! It's more cost-effective and greener to bleach protective clothing items, so that is what we will start to do. 

I made some Aviary-inspired bleach tubs for disinfecting our feeding and cleaning equipment! 

We have also developed the first protocols for the separation of meat and fruits/vegetables, with additional rules about washing food items when they arrive. Yay preventative medicine! 

Life at the zoo, 7:30am-6:30pm (or beyond for eagle flight cage creation), is busy as usual.  

Eagle stories: we moved two of our new arrivals, a Black-chested Buzzard Eagle and a juvenile Black and Chestnut Eagle, to bigger flight cages--just built in the past three days!

The story of this magnificent eagle is horribly sad: a family in the east knocked it from a forest perch with a machete as a juvenile, and kept it in a henhouse for the past eight months. Its wing has healed wrong in that time from where it was broken, and it cannot fly. We were given this bird by the environmental ministry last Friday. 

As I have mentioned before, a lot of these birds used to be pets. In all the shuffle updating cages, one of the Amazons got free and decided to hang out with Edwin. 

Before releasing the newer eagle into the newly built flight cage, we examined her wings and body condition. 

Beyond being stunning, she was remarkably low-stress. A great candidate for an education bird in the future!

Building afternoon storms are a regular thing here at Amaru. Our view here really is stunning. 

One of the two temporary flight cages for the eagles!

And a much happier resident, after a meal of fresh chicken. Welcome to your new home, lovely one. 

Ladies and gents, meet Ernesto (right) and the zoo's construction consultant! With decades of experience in mountain rescue with the city's fire department, a history in building in the Andes, and an upcoming job rescuing people in the French Alps, his input on our hillside aviary is just what we need!

Finally, Ernesto and I planning how to re-arrange the quarantine and clinic area to best accomodate our large numbers of rescue animals. The building far off, currently storage for cages and transport crates, will likely be expanded and outfitted with lights and water for the birds of Amaru. To Ernesto's left is the plot where we will start laying the foundation for the clinic on MONDAY. To his right, you can see the top of one of the temporary flight cages. We want to construct more of them in the same place in the future, and leave the current quarantine building for mammals only. 

So there you have it. That's about a week's worth of work at the zoo. Incredible, isn't it? We're really on a roll with construction projects now--so don't forget to check out my Razoo site and support us in our efforts! With less than $4000, we could build the entire vet clinic in a MONTH. Think about that.

I'll be updating more frequently on our progress in the next month: we only have until NOVEMBER 12TH to raise the $10000 we need for the aviary and clinic!!

Until next time,
Nikki and the birds at Amaru