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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Fur and Feathers: Monkeys

Now comes everyone's favorite animal group at the center, monkeys. At Sacha Yacu we take care of 12 monkeys, all with their own unique look and personality. Monkeys are an interesting case... they're both amazing and awful for the same reason, their likeness to humans. It's a wonderful thing to go into a cage with the monkeys and have them climb your leg and curl up in your arms trying to get their smell on you. It's not so great when they throw mud at you, bite your fingers, or break your wristwatch (Ok, so it was a $5 watch I got on the street in Quito, but still annoying.)
These are actually just wild Squirrel Monkeys that hang around the center because we feed them.

11 of our monkeys are Capuchins, considered the most intelligent of the New World monkeys. It really is astounding just how smart these little furballs are; I have seen them using tools to try to escape from their cages, using tools to actually escape from their cages, washing fruit before eating it, displaying jealousy and a myriad of other emotions, and outsmarting us humans on a daily basis. Twice a week we feed our monkeys insects that we catch the day before (using our hands I might add), the insects are supposed to be fed to the monkeys one at a time, but on more than one occasion I have seen the monkeys distract the person feeding them insects and then reach through the cage and greedily grab a giant handful of insects from the open jar. They of course proceed to run away and hoard their new catch, lustily wolfing down their prize while insect guts drip down their chins.
Me with Ada, aka my baby.
This is Zongo Zongo, our Titi monkey. She's abundantly furry and fuzzy, easily the most beautiful monkey we have, and she always sits on my shoulder for feeding time, my second favorite animal at the center.

But while they monkeys can often be a handful, they are undeniably loveable. I have several monkeys at the center that love to see me every day, when I come in to feed them or clean their cage they will jump on my back and start delicing me (picking through my hair), or climb into my arms and start making little baby noises. They are some of our cutest animals, and on good days they really make it a joy to work at Sacha Yacu.
This would be Ninja, one of our Capuchins, with his tail wrapped around my neck.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Fur and Feathers: Peccaries

This week brings a bit of a boring topic if you ask me, but one that must be covered nonetheless. Peccaries are essentially pigs, although apparently they are not even related to pigs in any way. They look like a type of wild hog, with big sharp tusks and a good throaty snort. They are an animal indigenous to the Amazon in and around this region of South America. They are very populous in other parts of their habitat, but in Ecuador peccaries have become endangered in recent years, and it is for that reason that we keep them at the center.
Two of our peccaries, these are the guys that always show up on our doorstep looking for food.

This is one of our Huanganas, which is basically a giant peccary.

The best way to describe a peccary is a "jungle pig", they have hooves, a big snout, and look and act just like pigs in about every way. They smell, they snort, and they're always escaping. Our peccaries have a huge cage and it seems that about 4 out of the 6 days a week there is at least one peccary that escapes. This becomes a big problem as they usually wander up to the house looking for food, and can be very dangerous. Many of our peccaries have become very accustomed to humans, and some are now even aggressive towards people. They are fast, and have huge tusks that can do some serious damage. My first week here, one of the other volunteers was bitten by a peccary, leaving him with a big whole in his foot and putting him out of work for about a week. There are some people who find the peccaries quite cute... I am not one of them, to me they're really just a nuisance that serves little purpose at the center. But they're animals in danger, so I'll care for them all the same. Until next time!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Fur and Feathers: Birds

For the second in my series on our animals here at Sacha Yacu, I will describe my personal favorite class of animals we take care of, the birds. We have everything here from turkeys to scarlet macaws, however the large majority are various types of amazonian parrots. Amazonians are a type of parrot that comes in all sizes and color patterns, but they all have the same basic look. All have a small beak and many are mostly green with patches of color to distinguish subspecies. They are beautiful birds, but are alas, outclassed by some of the stunning beauties they stand beside. Our scarlet macaws are the big attention grabbers, and it's hard to deny that they are pretty amazing. They are very large, about the size of a house cat, and covered with brilliant feathers that span the rainbow from red to violet.
Red Macaws are really awesome.

They use their beaks like a third leg to climb stuff, since they can't fly.

Most of our birds are here because they have been injured in a way that prevents them from functioning in the wild. One is blind, some are quite sick, but about half of them have had their wings clipped so that they cannot fly. All of our macaws and many of the amazonians have clipped wings, this does not mean that their wings are gone or cannot be opened, merely that they no longer have the strength in their wings to support their own weight for sustained flight. Pictures don't do complete justice to the birds, but it's still the best way I have to give you an idea of just how cool they are. Oh and as a side note, many of our parrots can talk... they are often screaming things like "HOLA!" in screechy parrot voices, or whistling... it's very fun to have a whistling contest with parrots, they're pretty tough competitors though.

Corn is the all-time favorite food for our birds.

One of our yellow-cheeked amazonians.

I have no idea what kind of parrot this guy is, but he is probably the most beautiful in my opinion, under those midnight blue outer feathers he's hiding a brilliant aqua display that you can only see when he flies.

Houdini enjoying a banana in his tree.

Houdini, escaped once more, hanging out in the bathroom, his favorite place on earth.

This is Houdini, our blue and yellow macaw, he deserves a special explanation because he's my favorite of almost all our animals at the center. Unlike the other animals, Houdini does not live in a cage here, he has a little house in a tree just outside the house. His wings are clipped and he cannot fly, but he has become quite amazing in just how well he can walk and where he can manage to get. He is named Houdini because he always escapes from his tree and walks up to the house. About four times a day Houdini will be found in the shower (his favorite place to hang out) or in the bathrooms, not in his house where he belongs. Despite his propensity for escape, I can't help but have a soft spot for Houdini, as I am one of the only people that he likes, and he will let me pet him all day long if I like. Plus the macaws with clipped wings look really goofy when they walk around, since they use their beak like a third leg, to grab onto things, and they waddle along like penguins. Sometimes I'll be laying about in a hammock and see Houdini come waddling up to the shower and just burst out laughing from how absurd he looks. Oh also he talks, every day at about 2:30 he starts screeching “Hola!” in different voices for about an hour.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Fur and Feathers: Mammals

Well, as promised, I will finally begin to blog about the animals that we take care of at the Sacha Yacu animal rescue center where I am currently living and working. At Sacha Yacu we take care of tons of different animals, but they are grouped into four groups: mammals, birds and turtles, peccaries, and monkeys.

For the first installment of my series on our animals, I will highlight the two types of mammals that we so lovingly care for, tayras and coatis. Tayras are a member of the weasel family, they are energetic, great climbers, and can peel and eat a banana in about 5 seconds. I think that our tayras look like a lot of fun, and wish that I could go in and play with them, that however is not possible since in recent months the tayras have become increasingly aggressive, and would have no trouble taking some chunks of flesh out of me if given the chance. Despite the aggressive nature of our tayras, many indigenous households do keep tayras as pets, and they can be domesticated, although you would want to keep a closer eye on them than on the dogs.


This is our male tayra, I find him quite cute.

This is our female tayra, I can't help but call her "Tayra Banks", the resemblance is uncanny.
Next up are our coatis, which share a lot of traits with the tayras, but are decidedly cuter. Coatis are members of the raccoon family, and the resemblance is quite noticeable. They are characterized by a long snout that bends upwards, and a ringed non-prehensile tail. I personally love the coatis, I think they're very cute and fun, as do many other people in South and Central America, which has led them to become quite popular as pets. Coatis are easily domesticated, and are commonly kept as pets, although they are decidedly harder to train or control than a dog, and much more dangerous. A couple months ago, one of our coatis escaped from her cage and attacked a volunteer. She ended up leaving this girl with a bunch of lacerations on the leg/body, and a good chunk of hand missing. That being said, I still can't resist petting the coatis, they really can be very tame when they're not stressed, and I've made friends with one of the females, I like to call her Annie.

Come on, how adorable is this guy?

Sorry for the blurry picture, but coatis move really fast, especially when they're hungry.

This is Annie, aka my best friend.

I've got three more groups of animals to write about, plus some more random animals that we have just living around the center, so stay tuned!