How to Get on the Level of the Most Respected Wildlife Rescue in Central America: Lessons from ARCAS

Captain's Log, Day 214: What's behind the work at ARCAS? It's an organization recognized by Humane Society International as a model for wildlife rescue centers in Latin America. The site for multiple international film projects showcasing the conservation of Central American flora and fauna. A training hospital for vet interns from Central and South America, Canada, and more international locations in the future. The temporary home for over 7,000 past international and national volunteers; the emergency center for any fauna rescued in the 1.6 million hectare Mayan Biosphere Reserve. I was lucky enough to be around for ARCAS's second Central American wildlife veterinary conference and workshop this year...not to mention the chance to get involved with some of the day-to-day veterinary work at the center. 

There's so much to LEARN from these guys. When you're talking the coordination of over 360 volunteers a year from 25+ countries, the intake and release of hundreds of native species PLUS the daily husbandry and medical care of a few hundred resident animals, there has to be some SERIOUS infrastructure in place to ensure safety and success. The staff of ARCAS makes it all happen, somehow, while still expanding their role in Central American conservation and wildlife vet medicine with each passing year. They're building a breeding center for their Scarlet Macaws as I write this. They're also grant-writing to get the funding necessary to begin -releasing- the aforementioned Macaws.

And that's not all.

ARCAS is home to hundreds of parrots who have lost flight capability due to injury...or can speak, as wild parrots could learn speaking behaviors from previously captive parrots and disrupt breeding in wild populations. 

These are two of the veterinary interns doing their practica here: one from Canada, and one from Mexico. We were called on to help catch a bunch of the resident parrots one day, which entailed and carrying them up from the Education Center, near the lake. It's fantastic that ARCAS has so much natural habitat to offer the animals; we don't really mind the longer walks across the 48-hectare property. I especially didn't mind--every step was an opportunity to listen and watch for migrant birds headed north. 

Some of Guatemala's Parks and Reserves from a poster in the vet clinic. Mesoamerica is one of the world's five highest biodiversity hotspots: home to 7% of the WORLD'S species of plants and animals. There are 292 threatened species extant in Central America. The parks in Guatemala comprise most of the remaining habitats for these species. 

Guatemala is the 2nd largest country in Central America. As of today, 29.4% of Guatemala's land lies within protected areas. Even though it's one of the best protected countries in Central America, there is far less environmental and biological research being done here than in Mexico, Panama, Belize, and Costa Rica. 

This is Dr.Alejandro Morales, my new ideal for 'Wildlife Vet'. It's rare you meet someone so intimately knowledgeable and unconditionally passionate about their work; rarer still to meet someone who lives in the same conditions as the volunteers who come in and out, on the property, to be as close as possible to the tasks at hand. Alejandro was an excellent teacher, and was never satisfied with how well things were going at ARCAS; he always had his eyes trained forward and up. I hope that I get to return and do my practica with him someday. 

This little crocodile arrived with an injury to his back leg. He should be releasable eventually if the injury doesn't seem to slow him down too much. 

Dr. Fernando Martinez, the veterinary director of the center, was another excellent teacher. During my time there, I got to participate in a veterinary student from Guatemala City's thesis concerning anesthetics. 

Just as we had in the National Aviary's hospital, we reviewed all procedures, sterilized surfaces, and went through our roles before doing anything. Things get a bit more hectic as time goes on in procedures such as these, but that happens everywhere---the ARCAS vets really know what they're doing. 

And they REALLY know how to handle animals. I daresay with the hundreds of trafficked and injured animals that come through yearly, they've had more than enough practice. The parrot handling experience I got during my time there will be especially helpful in the future. Note that Alejandro has two hands firmly on the parrot's lower jaw here, to prevent it from turning its head and injuring itself during an examination---his other fingers rest loosely over the neck, which is long and quite flexible. He's not hurting the bird: just immobilizing it effectively. 

All of the veterinary equipment you can see in the hospital background was donated by one Dutch man by the name of Jan. He donated all the equipment at the request of a past volunteer without ever visiting ARCAS, but has been over to see the project many times since. Quite a family here. 

I absolutely LOVED working with the macaws. Part of the enrichment regime we had for them was feeding locally available fruits and 'berries' every afternoon--so they not only learned to recognize plants they could eat in the wild, but also so they got a more complete diet. 

The sound of the macaws mumbling contentedly to themselves as they crackled and popped the fruits open with their beaks is probably my new favorite noise ever.  

They're too gorgeous. A bunch of living, screeching, hanging tapestries of the brightest red, blue, and yellow. Yee.

SIDE NOTE: ARCAS has four stages of animal care for animals that are able to be released. All animals go through a quarantine period when they first arrive, and if they are determined to be healthy, they to to recuperation--where they might regrow clipped feathers or heal sores from ropes that once bound them to people's front porches--and onward to pre-rehabilitation and rehabilitation cages. The holding areas get progressively larger and more natural, with enrichment that provide greater challenges similar to those they'll face in the wild. It's an excellent system.

For some of our parrots in rehabilitation, we have hanging perches to help them develop balance and increase their skill and stamina in flight. This branch is drilled full of holes that we stock with branches from trees with edible fruits every afternoon, and it is hung from a pulley, so the birds have to fly up to it and land on it while it's swinging. It helps prepare them for windy days and the smaller branches they'll need to be able to perch on in the wild. 

A wildlife vet visiting from Mexico is helping with the weekly regime of parasite screens in quarantine. 

Fecal floats are super interesting and fun for vet nerds like us. TMI?

View through the microscope, with some worms and larvae. Eep!

I was extremely lucky with my timing---there was a veterinary conference going on for the second week I was at ARCAS for vets of Central America. Field biologists, veterinarians at new wildlife centers, veterinarians looking to start their own wildlife centers--all came to give talks about their experiences, research, and animals, as well as learn from ARCAS's vast experiences and methods. The conference operated like a workshop for most of the time: Fernando, Alejandro, and the workers from CONAP showed proper animal handling techniques and talked about successful procedures. 

During the conference, we moved monkeys and parrots from pre-rehabilitation cages to the MASSIVE rehabilitation cages, which are full of trees, more open to predation, and farther away from the complexes frequented by volunteers. When animals move to rehabilitation, they're basically on their own, save for  feeding and observation periods in the morning and afternoon. 

Capturing and moving primates is a delicate and potentially dangerous situation. These monkeys have been taught to fear humans, which increases their chances of successful release...but also makes it much harder for us to handle them. In this photo, two vets from the conference are preparing to move a lightly sedated Spider Monkey. 

The vets at the conference all helped with the exit exams of the 12 adults and 4 juvenile Spider Monkeys ARCAS was moving between prereabilitation and rehabilitation cages. Here, they are taking fecal and blood samples to check the health of each monkey before they are released into the rehabilitation enclosure---it is rare they have the chance to check the health of these monkeys, which are closer to free-living, in this detail. 

For how many monkeys and people were working during this process, the staging area was relatively calm and as quiet as it probably could have been. All the monkeys were processed without incident. 

Which means that this pre-rehab social group---all twelve of the monkeys, and the four juveniles, are one step closer to being released!! It is crucial that the primate groups ARCAS releases form social groups in the often messy way monkeys do in the wild; this group is fairly well-established, as all groups become once they reach pre-rehabilitation. The birth of babies in a troop is the signal for a well-established hierarchy, and this group has four. 

...ARCAS has a few confused Howler Monkeys living in pre-rehabilitation as well...among the deer. When they arrived, they decided they identified more as white-tailed deer than as monkeys, and have been living among the herds ever since. This one is grooming a newly born fawn as its mom stands patiently watching. All species are full of surprises. 

In-between workshop learning, all the vets gathered in the library for various talks. Nutrition, conservation, the state of trafficking in their respective countries, case studies from their wildlife centers...I wish I'd had more time to sit in on more talks. 

But us volunteers were quite busy preparing the prerehabilitation cages for their next set of occupants...

....and re-perching rehabilitation for the incoming group of parrots. The rehabilitation cages, as I've mentioned, are massive, and meant to be as close to wild-living as the animals can get while still being under our care. 

See the spider monkey in the middle of this frame?

It's the same shot as this one---the monkey is still in the middle of the frame. This is one of the troop members from pre-rehab, now in rehabilitation. The trees are cut back from the rehabilitation cage so the monkeys can't jump onto them and escape, and the fence is electrified--solar-powered, too. So there they are: the monkeys that made it to the final step, and will be released in a handful of months. 

Additional side-note: The RELEASE of ARCAS animals.

       The Mayan Biosphere Reserve encompasses a number of National Parks. In Guatemala, the Rio Azul and Mirador National Park areas are the most intact--so that is where ARCAS takes their animals for releases. The trek to Mirador/Rio Azul is laborious and costly for ARCAS; over 120km of underdeveloped dirt roads to get to the deepest areas in the park, stopping to educate communities that live in the reserve along the way about why they shouldn't participate in animal trafficking.

If stopping with a truck full of rehabilitated animals doesn't make a lasting impression on those communities, allowing them to be present for the release of these parrots and monkeys--allowing them to experience the sublime elation in freeing these beautiful animals into the pristine cover of Rio Azul--often does.

You've got it right, ARCAS.  

Parting shots of the volunteers behind the tasks that keep ARCAS running as smoothly as it does. Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Mexico, and the USA represented in this group. A NOTE TO THOSE WHO WISH TO JOIN ARCAS: the financing of the center's activity is ONLY possible through the contributions paid by visiting volunteers. Depending on the funding in any given year, volunteer costs could cover 45-65% of the center's expenses.  So YOU GO, ARCAS volunteers! Each one of these people is making a huge difference in Guatemalan and Tropical Conservation. 

In addition to the talks and workshops during the day, we were treated to a bonus talk from a bat biologist one evening concerning awareness of preventative medicine, parasites, and the possibility for disease transmission in field studies. 

Many people had never seen the mist-netting of bats before, so it was a super-engaging evening!

Thanks for all your hard work, dedication, and commitment to the improvement of Conservation Medicine, Alejandro and Fernando!

Since its humble beginnings in 1991, ARCAS has built a wildlife care and conservation empire.

Roseate Spoonbill; approaching its clearance for release!

In addition to the constant improvements to the its three main projects--Guatemala City, Hawaii, Guatemala's seaturtle conservation, and the center I was working at in Peten--ARCAS has also contributed to international projects such as Macaws and Jaguars Without Borders, research concerning Malaria in Spider Monkeys, Genetic Integrity in Scarlet Macaws, Emergent Bat Diseases, Jaguar GPS/Monitoring Techniques, Long-term Weight Management and Monitoring in 15+ Native Species, Reproduction and Hand-Rearing Protocols for 30+ species....

Previously kept as a pet, this river otter will be a difficult case for release. It's a long way back to the wild for these trafficked animals...which is why ARCAS is so hard at work to educate the public and prevent trafficking activity for the future. 

I feel so grateful to have been able to learn and work alongside the incredible people who have given their lives to ARCAS. They have a lot to be proud of, here: each day is another step towards increased environmental awareness.

Anna, the lovely and lively volunteer coordinator from New Zealand, at the end of a long day's work.
 I MISS HER BADLY. Hope I can get back there soon! 

So....that. That's how a center could get on the level of the most respected wildlife center in Central America. They could open their doors to the public, to the community, to any wild animal impacted by humans that needs attention, to international volunteers with ANY level of experience in wildlife care and cosnervation. Then, they could TEACH them, in every minute of every day, and let them EXPERIENCE the sorrow and back-breaking work; the greatest joys and success stories of these animals and the protection of their habitats--before sending them out into the world to tell others.

Five stars, ARCAS. I'll be taking your lessons back to Amaru and with me into vet school. I'll tell as many people as I can.

If you want to volunteer for ARCAS, visit their homepage here: ARCAS Guatemala, or contact me with specific questions. It's the experience of a lifetime.

Cheers, all.
-Nikki Becich