Captain's Log, Day 71: Good news for Amaru. After raising $5,910 on the Razoo page, we were approached by a private donor, who offered to contribute the remaining $5000 we needed to build an aviary for the parrots in quarantine. With the vet clinic construction starting, Ernesto Filipe doing well in his first week of family life, and new primate arrivals, it's hard to leave...
(Very hard to leave.)
With my bags packed, my last night of Salsa dancing with friends spent, and my last lunch with the Arbelaez family over, I am off to Mindo for my next biology adventure: field research and volunteering for the Las Tangaras Reserve and Life Net Nature.
Stay tuned here for updates on the progress of the vet clinic and aviary. I will be publishing all of Ernesto's updates!
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| So what MORE have we accomplished in our last week at Amaru? |
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| We are receiving larger orders of deparasitized chickens, quail, and ducks for feeding from a new provider. |
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| We completed five new holding cages for raptors in quarantine! |
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| They are remarkably more tranquil outside of the main quarantine building. |
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| Our hope is to eventually have seperate quarantine areas for mammals, passerines, parrots, and reptiles. We're getting there... |
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| Some more pictures of the new family! Things are pretty crazy around here with the new baby... |
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| Everyone is healthy and happy, though! |
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| Birds and people alike. |
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| We are working on increasing enrichment for all animals. Here are some granadillas for the parrots (they are rarely ever fed these; a good foraging opportunity with the seeds and tough skins), and some different grains for our herbivores mixed with molasses. |
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| A one-month old Chorongo baby was seized this week from the main bus terminal. Now the volunteers and (mostly) Ernesto's sister, Vicky, need to care for this baby around the clock. It's incredibly difficult when young primates are taken from their mothers... |
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| ...for months and months after. We got a second three month old Chorongo just a day later, from the environmental ministry. This one is a little more self sufficient, but still needs close monitoring. |
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| Here is the re-organized bioterrium! With the help of the new keepers, we can maintain many populations of live animals to feed out to our animals, and don't have to worry about feeding red meat to species that don't typically eat red meat. It's a great step forward! |
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| Speaking of steps forward, we now have most of the materials we need for the vet clinic purchased! The crew is laying the foundation NOW. Check out those steel support rods! They say in two weeks, it could potentially be FINISHED. How crazy is that?! |
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| We're also moving forward with plans for the large flight aviary. This particular aviary would be used for our future condor conservation program with the National Aviary! Nice drawing, Ernesto. |
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| Ernesto Filipe, five days old. |
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| His amazing parents... |
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| And an amazing family I can't wait to see again, hopefully soon. |
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| They gave me a panama hat (a really Cuencano thing) as a goodbye gift. Thanks, guys. |
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| This definitely won't be the last time I see Amaru. Until next time... |
...until next time, I'm off to the forest, and back to field life.
Stay tuned for more Amaru updates and some posts about my OTHER Cuencan adventures with the Environmental Ministry.
19 days left in Ecuador. Crazy.
Cheers.
Nikki and Ernesto (and family):
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful--what a lot of work you have accomplished in a relatively short period of time! My congratulations and my thanks for all that you do for wildlife in Ecuador. I would love to visit one day! Be well, and best of luck to all of you. And happy Trails, Nikki! Best, Bob