Just when you thought a story like that one couldn't get any better, it did. Things have been off to a decent start during my second round at ARCAS. It's been amazing seeing my friends that were here when I left, and a couple of return volunteers that are back have been tons of fun to hang out with, drink with, and enjoy general debauchery with as well. The downside so far has been a few animals have died. It always happens in waves, and a few monkeys died last week and it was pretty tough on everyone who had become quite attached to these animals even though they had been sick for a while. One spider monkey had a broken leg and she had to be isolated; alone she had become depressed and we had to groom her each day to cheer her up. She died of a respiratory infection. And we had received two howler monkeys confiscated from a circus, but after a couple days their injuries were just too series and they both passed away.
But onto happier times and hilarious stories: that pesky dove. Once again I had to feed it every day and had to make sure it didn't escape. I hated it more and more, especially when it was definitely trying to escape and I'd hit my head trying to rush in and out of its cage.
One day last week Alejandro, the director here at ARCAS, pulls me and another volunteer aside and says, "because you two know what's going on and understand what we do here, I'm going to tell you: those doves are never going to be released. They land on too many peoples' heads and are going to be killed, so we're just going to feed them to the margays."
Margays are like small jaguar/cheetahs. Smaller cats, but they hunt for their food. So after all the crazy adventures of capturing the bird, putting up with it in the cages, and all that jazz, we fed it to another animal we have here at ARCAS. My favorite part has to be the food board, pictured here. The doves are crossed out, and below you can read the reason why. RIP, inside the belly of a margay.
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