The birds are movin!

Last week, after waiting for several days, we moved the birds from pre-rehabilitation to their rehab cage. It seems like a simple step, but it really means a lot more in the grand scheme of things. These birds have been at ARCAS for over a year now. Many were illegally trafficked to become pets. Some already were pets; others were found injured in the wild. They all came to ARCAS, grew out their feathers, got healthy, and finally learned how to fly. They now are in their final steps to being released again into the wild as they fly around in their new and bigger cage with tree and huge, long limbs to imitate branches that we stick berries into (about 90% of their diet in the wild).

I was extremely excited for the move. I was excited for them to take the next step, and to see all the workers at ARCAS try and catch 90 screeching birds flying back and forth in a 30x100ft cage. We had to draw blood and inject vitamins for each bird, and the entire ordeal took almost four hours. But they are now in their new cage and on their way to being released in June. That release will take place in a Guatemalan National Park--the exact one still TBD--and will involve three weeks of monitoring and workers travel back and forth between the release site and ARCAS. Still work to be done, but another step in the right direction.

Remember that bird I let escape?

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.

One last sloth story

Some of you may have heard about this incident already, but I thought I´d share the entire story of the time I helped save a sloth´s life.

A week or so ago after we had finished feeding all the sloths for the afternoon, one of the new volunteers came running over to a group of us and the volunteer coordinator saying one of the sloths was choking on something. We rushed over and Claire, the volunteer coordinator, frantically opened the cage door and tried to get the choking sloth out of the back of its enclosure. I had to basically shove the other sloth in the cage out of the way to help out. Oh well.

Once Clair had picked up the sloth and was holding it we could see that it was choking on what seemed to be a little piece of string. They all have towels in their cages that they enjoy pulling over themselves to create a cover and shading from the light. So as Claire held the sloth I took the little bit of string on the sloth´s nose and began pulling. I eventually pulled out a piece of string almost a foot and a half long that for some reason it had been trying to swallow.

After I wasn´t sure who was more relieved, the sloth or Claire. She looked like she was about to have a heart attack. I guess the sloth was about to have a similar experience, but of course it did was all sloths do and went back to it´s platform, curled up in the corner, and went to sleep.

Change of plans

So at this moment I am back in a hostel in Alajuela, near San Jose, Costa Rica. For months I had planned on staying in CR for another six weeks at this point to work with a sea turtle conservation project. But those plans have changed.

From the moment I left Guatemala I felt saddened--to be quite honest--that I was leaving such a fantastic program like ARCAS. I never felt like I had contributed so strongly to a cause that I could really see the good work happening. I really didn't want to leave, but I had already made other plans. Well now I've spent time with the sloths and had a blast, but I'm heading back to Guatemala to work at ARCAS again. Sorry sea turtles.

There are plenty of turtles at ARCAS, so I know I'll be helping turtles in another part of the world. But the people there and the animals have been calling me back ever since I left. So I'm off to Guatemala again in the morning and will be back to helping los animales de ARCAS for another six weeks before my adventures end and I head back home. The first four weeks I spent there were four of the greatest weeks of my entire year, so I can't wait to spend another six (and final) weeks of my travels at ARCAS.

The time I named a sloth

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Cory. Cory came to the sloth sanctuary just a few weeks ago. Apparently Cory fell of it's mother and was found on the ground by a good samaritan and brought to the sanctuary.

I refer to Cory as it because we're still not sure what sex Cory is. Soon after Cory arrived we were told we had a new baby but that we didn't have a name. We needed one, but it needed to be gender neutral in case it turned out to be either a boy or a girl. Immediately Cory popped into my head and I suggested it. Everyone like it, and it stuck.

Cory is as adorable a sloth as you'll ever meet. Unfortunately Cory is a little on the slow side, and I mean mentally. We think he may have had some serious head trauma during his fall or was possibly born that way because man can that sloth cling. Cory has sharper claws that any other sloth I've held at Aviarios and knows how to hold on (see picture). But sometimes Cory only feels the need to use one or two limbs and is susceptible to falling off.

But we all love Cory and take turns making sure he/she receives the best of care. Tiny and adorable like all the rest, but knowing I named him/her will always be a lasting memory.

Sloth Fun Facts

The biggest problem with sloth stereotypes is both species of sloths are called by the same name; however, as I mentioned in my previous post, they are as closely related to each other as they are to ant eaters. Think of them as any other type of animal such as birds, dogs, or cats: they may look similar but they are actually different species.

The pictures of the gray sloth you see is Jojo. He is a three-toed sloth. They are the much slower of the two and do act very sloth-like. Their fur is much tougher and they develop a patch on their backs (why we don't know, but it's possibly there for identification or mating purposes). The three-toeds only each cecropia leaves here at the sanctuary, but can also eat certain flowers; they have a very basic diet.

Two-toeds, despite having the same common ancestor (which was twice as big as an elephant 80 million years ago), have a more varied diet in the wild but each mostly leaves and veggies here. Each day they receive carrots and potatoes, unripe mango (they hate when it's ripe), and water apple (imagine a red pear). And while these guys are called sloths, they can get from one side of their cages to another in just a couple of seconds. I'll go to place their food on their platforms and when I think they're still on the floor I'll turn around and a sloth will be right in my face.

Oddly enough they do not like each other at all. When we take out the babies to give them some space to roam around we are told to strictly keep them apart. Otherwise they fight and bite. They also have different facial structure. It's hard to describe, so just take a look for yourself. But three-toeds seem unreal almost, like they're mini robots trying to move around. I'll try and take some video for everyone to see.

So there you have it! And since there is very little research out there about these things, you can basically consider yourself an expert.

Aviarios del Caribe Sloth Sanctuary

So I have now settled in at the sloth sanctuary, and things have been fantastic. Much to tell, so here we go.

The sloth sanctuary has been around for a couple decades now. Louis and Judy moved down here in 1986 (he is Costa Rican and she is from Alaska)and one day some neighborhood girls brought an injured sloth to them. They took care of the sloth, naming her Buttercup. Soon they had several other sloths coming their way and they began a refuge sight for the animals. Today there are over 120 of them here, both two-toed and three-toed, adults and babies, big and small.

(If you want to know more about this place, go ahead and visit www.slothrescue.org).

So I am one of the many volunteers that has come here over the years to help out with these guys. They're all adorable, especially the babies with their soft fur. I thought I knew a lot of them, but apparently I knew close to nothing. For example, two-toed and three-toed sloths are as closely related to each other as they are to ant eaters. They are entirely different species but fall victims to bad naming many years ago. Yes, they do look similar in many ways, but once you get to know them they're quite different.

We get to know these sloths pretty intimately here at Aviarios. We get up at 5:30 each morning to clean out their cages (pretty easy since they only go to the bathroom once a week) and feed them. We are constantly encouraged to talk to the sloths, but that usually happens during morning "baby time." Claire, the volunteer coordinator here, is in charge of the babies and has us volunteers take them out each day for some climbing and exercising. They are incredibly adorable. Cute and cuddly, sometimes a little too much so with the insanely sharp claws they have. The sometimes bite and sometimes cry but have incredible instinct once only a few weeks old and can hang and climb just about anything.

Later we prepare their food by chopping up a few pots of carrots and camote (local sweet potato) with a little mango thrown in as well. After a short lunch break we feed all the sloths and are done by 3 at the latest. The days go by quickly and the work is pretty straightforward, but spending extra time with the sloths always keeps us around the cages and nursery longer than you'd expect.

Judy and the others who are in charge always try and release a sloth if they can, but young babies and too badly injured sloths have no choice but to stay because they could never survive in the wild. But we provide them all with a great home here at Aviarios where they eat and sleep as much as they like. They sleep up to 18 hours a day, but are much quicker than you'd think. If you're not looking a two-toed will sprint across the cage and be right in your face as you turn around to exit their enclosures. It's happened more than once to me already and it'll give you quite a shock.

There's a lot of information I'd like to share so I'll add a few more fact posts in the next week or so. Enjoy the photos!