Home, Here I Come!

Today is my last day here at Rainsong. I'm feeling a bit saddened in leaving these animals in the midst of having watched them grow, heal, and develop. However, I'm extremely excited to go home and spend time with my family and friends!

The past week has been draining. A bunch of new volunteers/interns came and I wound up being the only one who knew what to do for the animals the day they all came. I was running around preparing food and cleaning cages while having to answer their questions and show them where things were and explaining who gets fed what and what to do in certain situations. By the time my break came around, I was exhausted.

Today was also a bit exhausting as a new volunteer and Mary's new filmmaker, Adam, needed to interview a volunteer/intern about a typical day at Rainsong, the pro's and con's they've been faced with, and why they chose Rainsong. He was also looking to collect advocacy videos about the animal electrocutions. Mary suggested that he interview me since I have been here the longest. It was a bit nerve-wracking, having never been in front of a camera for something so important. I didn't want to say anything wrong or misrepresent Rainsong in any way and there was little time to prepare or gather my words. Adam talked me through some of it and what he would go over or what I should talk about, though, and I was a lot more relaxed. Even when I was jumped on by a muddy dog and a monkey peed on me 3 times, all on film!

These interview segments will be going up on youtube and possibly even Mary's website for Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary!

It's been a long and somewhat stressful last day, but getting the chance to represent Rainsong through the interviews, and getting more time with my favorite animals, definitely made my last day memorable and an overall fun experience.

Changes

I've never really been good at remembering names. It certainly doesn't help when you have new volunteers each week and others leaving. I'm amazed at how Mary can even 'sort-of, kind-of' remember names! It's probably best that she has long term volunteers teaching new volunteers. This way, she doesn't have to constantly say the same things over and over again...like I've had to do the past 3 weeks since I've now been here the longest. If I were to run my own non-profit organiation, this is the way I would do it as well. Things are constantly changing here. Different volunteers bring a different atmosphere, both working and social. There are always new animals coming in and therefore, the meals prepared are always changing. I've realized just how important it is to be flexible and spontaneous in a career such as this one!

Many of the newer volunteers and interns were working today while I had the day off. News got back to me that we had a baby variegated squirrel come into Rainsong! We also had another howler monkey come in, although he was taken directly to the vet so none of us have seen him yet. I'm excited to go back to work tomorrow and see the squirrel and get updates about how the monkey is doing!

Even with so many recent new volunteers and animals coming in, tomorrow will be a disappointing day since the girls I am living with, other volunteers, are leaving Rainsong and pursuing a one week travel adventure. I'm surprised at how close we have all gotten while enduring the trials and joys of this wildlife sanctuary together and I'll be sad to see them go. However, it won't be long before I leave as well (and I have to admit, I'm eager to be home to spend time with my family and friends!) But for now, I'm glad for the changes Rainsong brings and the friendships I have made here.

Sad Day...

A few volunteers and I have today and tomorrow off, but Mary asked me to come in in the morning to look over a few emails before she sent them out. I went into Rainsong and found out that a new 2 week old pygmy skunk we had come in a few days ago, had died during the night along with a baby variegated squirrel. It was the first 'RIP news' I had experienced at Rainsong and at first, it was hard to accept the death of these two critters. I had spent many of my hours trying to syringe-feed the skunk and encouraging its bowel movements. It was just such a small and helpless animal and eventully refused the milk we were feeding it.

In other bad news, Thumbelina, the burn-marked howler monkey twin, died this morning as well. The past few days were rough. She had no interest in drinking and her fingers swelled up, even with the medicine and antibiotics she was treated with. She slowly lost movement in her arms and it spread throughout her body, causing paralysis. She rarely made any noise after that, and the look on her face was that of defeat. She had given up on her will to live, and with internal organ damage from the electrocution damage there was nothing more we could do to save her.

Mary and I have set up a facebook group called 'End Wildlife Electrocutions in Costa Rica' for people, mainly Costa Ricans, to post pictures and information about any sightings of electrocutions. The group is also for anybody who wants to prevent these horrid electrocutions and bring back Costa Rica's famous draw toward Ecotourism. Please join this group in support of the prevention of animal electrocutions! Also, search 'Isla del Coco, Costa Rica' on facebook and click 'Like'. We need 140,000 people to 'Like' this page before a proposal gets brought to the government demanding the insulation of electrical wires and/or the building of proper monkey bridges! It is my biggest challenge and hope while here for my internship, that we can all come together and put a preventative action to this upsetting situation.

Electrocutions

Last night's worknight ended with an eventful tragedy. Two locals brought in twin baby howler monkeys to Rainsong who were found still attached to their dead electrocuted mothers back. We guessed them to be about 2 or 3 months old. One had minor burn marks on all hands and feet and part of her tail. One of her fingers was bent and is now unusable. The other was howling a lot and both baby monkeys appeared to be in a lot of pain and shock. We quickly threw together an incubated nestling box for them and fed them warmed milk through syringes before putting them into their nestling box. We named the burned monkey Thumbelina and her twin Bella.

The next day, three other volunteers and I were in charge of their care. We washed Thumbelina's burn marks and put anti-bacterial cream on her fingers, toes, and tail. We constantly observed them and made sure they were not licking off the cream. Every two hours, we syringe-fed them. Two other volunteers drove to a nearby town, Montezuma, and bought two stuffed monkeys to act as a comfort for the babies. They cried out a lot and seem to still be in shock, although they are doing a bit better. We're crossing our fingers for their survival.

Animal electrocutions are serious and can be extremely fatal. In just 5 years, Costa Rica has lost about 50% of its monkey population due to electrocutions! The government is simply not willing to spend money on materials needed to insulate telephone wires or to build monkey bridges. This needs to stop! ***Please support the prevention of animal electrocutions by 'Like'ing the facebook group called Isla del Coco, Costa Rica.*** We need 140,000 people backing this group up in order to be able to bring it to the government and get funding for insulating wires and building monkey bridges. There are at least 74,000 people and we need almost double this. Thumbelina and Bella thank you!

(Above) Bella and Thumbelina, still a little in shock and confused about their surroundings.

(Above) Thumbelina recovering from her electrocution burns.

(Above) Thumbelina crying out to her twin Bella.

He can FLY!

Went to work this morning after having a splendid and much needed two days off with my roomies Molly, Sherri, Amber, Jen, and Christa and found a great discovery! Eggbert can fly! Eggbert (actually Sir Eggbert) is our white throated magpie jay who was found abandoned on the roadside. He didn't know how to fly or self-feed and was so young he still had down feathers. Eggbert is progressing greatly! He has grown new feathers and can fly/hop from twig to twig now. I still have to feed him though, but it's one of my favorite jobs. I take small pinches of ground beef and put my fingers over his head while he opens his mouth widely and loudly. When he swallows he makes a gurgling sound before pleading for more. Here is a picture of our cute little Eggbert.

In other news: We have a jaguar and two cubs living in the forest behind the Rainsong farm! Apparently the mother jaguar put a hole through our white tailed deer fawns enclosure in hope of food for its young, but our fawn hopped the fence. He was found two days later with only a few scratches, and was returned to Rainsong and put into a locked and roofed enclosure. Enjoy a picture of Rudy, our fawn!

Land Thieves and Debates

I am on my second week here at Rainsong and all of my days are running together. It seems that there was so much going on when I look back at this week and yet when I am in the moment of this week I find that the other volunteers and I have our work done right away and so we simply putz around until more work comes along. We're definitely in the rainy season now as it hasn't stopped pouring for four days! With so much rain there isn't much we can do, work-wise.

Last week, neighbors of Mary's pulled out her fencing up at the lodgehouse near the farm and clear-cut all of her trees. They put wooden numbered stakes into the ground in hopes of moving their fence to those stakes and thus stealing a good portion of her land, simply for the ocean view. A few volunteers and I were up there pulling out their stakes and taking pictures for evidence while Mary called the police and an investigator. She's apparently been dealing with this for years now!

Once everything was handled with that situation and things quieted down on the sanctuary, Mary was invited to attend an important meeting about the prevention of animal electrocutions. She nvited me along and we brought Evey, one of her baby howler monkeys who is a victim of arboreal animal electrocutions. Her mother was in the nearby national park and was zapped on a telephone wire. A local had found Evey still clinging to her dead mothers back and brought her to Rainsong. When we arrived at the meeting we talked about Evey's background and what needs to be done to prevent these animal electrocutions. There was a big debate held where people discussed the pros and cons of building monkey bridges and insulating telephone wires. Things got pretty heated and it didn't seem like much progress came of the meeting. It was a long and challenging day and I was glad to be back in Cabuya by night, relaxing to a game of UNO with the volunteers.

Here! Enjoy a picture of Evey!

Hungry Mosquitos and Poo Flinging Monkeys

Finally here and adjusting to the heat and the living conditions. I met Mary, my Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary supervisor, as well as most of the volunteers. I've been living in a rustic lodgehouse with the volunteers for about a week now and we've been sharing our lounge with a cane toad, iguanas, some rats, and a baby scorpion. The days are humid and the mosquito bites are intense. I think I scratch myself more than the monkeys do!

In my first few hours at the sanctuary I got to bottle feed three baby mantled howler monkeys while learning about the history of the sanctuary and Costa Rica. I spent the first few days learning how to prep food for the animals and clean cages as well as give tours. The sanctuary has a wide variety of exotic and native species such as a white faced monkey, prehensile tailed porcupines, iguanas, white tailed deer, paca, guans, keel billed toucan, collared aracari, a variety of parrot species, and many more.

In the mornings, the volunteers and I walk down from our lodgehouse and feed all the animals and clean cages while a few of us warm milk for the baby howlers and bottle feed them. We get a 3 hour lunch break and then come back to work in the early evenings to re-feed some of the animals and give tours to the public. At night we get to hang out in our lounge together at the lodgehouse and talk about traveling and how many times the wild troop of white faced monkeys tried flinging poo down at us (YES! They actually do this!) It's been a long and tiresome week so far but I'm excited to get out of the dirty work, new beginner jobs and get into more of the hands on and interactive work!