Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary: 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!