Doce and Trece

Well gang… today was definitely an interesting and adventuresome day. Usual 5AM visit from my girl Sweetie… She wanted me to come out to play, but I had a lot to do, so I only went out of the MFZ for a few moments… Sweetie showed me all her owies and I was ready to put some antibiotic on them… Then I distracted her for just a moment, because all of you can figure out what happened next… Sweetie licked the ointment off… and as I had some on mine too, that was also removed… Sweetie then started to “HELP ME” remove my stitches… I told her she could do it, but not yet… 12 year olds, can you tell them anything that they listen too??

About 8, I went down to the beach to get ready for going to a showing… The local conservation authority called MINAE was opening up a new station in the Piedras Blanco National Park and it was a reception… Not like you would think… I will describe in moment… PLEASE FORGIVE THE TYPOS… LONG STORY, BUT I ONLY CAN TYPE WITH ONE HAND. Slow and I haven’t been going back to proof..

At the beach we ready the little boat (barco) for 50 min trip up the River… I had been up the river once before on an eco tour… I asked to drive, because I need the practice on the river which can be tricky at all but high tide… After loading the boat with ‘gifts’ we proceeded to the mouth of the river and then up the river… Tide was high… no problems… Arrived at Ranger station and had to hike about ¼ mile through mud to get to station… Greeted by all the officials and many Ticos and Ticas… and ninos… I was introduced to the officials as well as told the stories of who is aligned with whom against whom… They had made a little display (en espanol), had set up some benches and ultimately served a CR BBQ… I sat down for a bit while Carol made her greetings… Then she needed to leave, so I went back with her to the Sanctuary. Picked up Earl and one of our workers and we went back… Earl and I and the Tica drove up the river, now starting to go down… Tides in Golfo Dulce run 16 feet at worst… 12 feet at best… and there are no navigational markers of any kind everything is local knowledge. We ended up having some chow… I could identify most of the foods, but not all… Roast pork was best, followed by tico salad and a few strange side dishes of local fruit and some Yucca, that was excellent. Everything tasted good and I ate up… although I have been eating little in the last few days… I tried to do my best to talk to the tico’s , but mostly very basic stuff… Then the deputy of the station took me over to the displays and I got a presentation on the past, present and future of the entire conservation effort… Done in Spanish, but I actually understood about 70 percent. They are opening up satelite stations all over the southern region. And they are getting the national government to designated more and more land PUBLIC FOR CONSERVATION. He actually showed me the new marine park along the length of the entire National Park… and what they planned for the next few years… The entire reception today was donated by the local business, which include the Sanctuary. Music was Tico… but happy and uplifting… Then things started to wind down, so we prepared to leave… got to the boat and launched… tide is now very low going lower… Picked our way down river… long story short... stuck... Finally moving again, we got back at about 3PM… I had sprained my left hand in the boat pushing and fell down many times… Walking in mud was very tiring. Back at Sanctuary, muddy, dirty, hot, tired and a bit sick to tummy… I went up to take shower before 4 PM dinner, was so tired that I almost gave myself a concussion by hitting my head on a hard piece of wood… Will have big bump tomorrow… and sat down one minute and fell asleep… Sweetie came up and snuck the treats out of my hand… and she was happy camper. Finally called to dinner… which was a pasta and mushroom thing that I at first refused, and then it looked so good, I decide to have a little… Besides energy is diminishing… probably from lack of nutrition. Evening dominos and than off to cabino for this message and a few other chores…

Told Carol I would be more than happy to take over care of the rehab animals… so tomorrow, Piedra is being moved into my cabino and me and little rocky raccoon will become roommates… Rocky needs a dressing on her stump every few days… I am on it… Back is bothering me tonight, no doubt from the boat adventure… Will take a med I have for that… So ends another day in the jungle… Biggest challenges are adapting to no light, limited electricity, and very very degraded computer conditions... Mine blew up and is at the computer hospital in San Jose… I am using Earls which is a MAC and so lots of functions are strange… and then the batteries are constantly crashing on the phone and the computer… In fact, better try to get this off… Hasta manana


Day 13… Could not get this email off last night… no power to cell phone… so I thought I would update you on a couple of things.

Rained all night very very heavily… Must have been many inches… Sweetie visited this AM and immediately stole my water bottle, which I left on my side of the MFZ, but she figured out how to get it through… Then she commenced to unscrew the top and drink some and throw the rest around… At 630, one of the workers arrived with my new roommate and her stuff… Yes, Piedra is now with me in my cabino… I just finished feeding and cleaning her and played with her for a while for some exercise and now she is carrying on because I put her back in the cage to do this… I need to get her some aqua calor for her to settle down… Placement of cages and stands difficult in the cabin because I can’t put anything within 20 inches of the walls… Sweetie’s range… I took some pix this AM and I will work on getting them uploaded… Hasta til later.

Never could send this so finally I have a connection and I will add the rest of today… and then send…

After breakfast, I spent the next few hours in the lab/clinic organizing meds and supplies, testing a few pieces of equipment and taking inventory… Nothing unusual.

Then I did my mid day feeding and cleaning of Piedra – northern raccoon. She ate well, eliminated well and took her bath without much fuss… We played for about an hour, with her using me as the jungle gym… Then I put her back and went to main building to try and work on computer… No go on that… but did pick up a book that is fascinating… Animals in Transition – a best seller… I randomly opened it and guess what, it was to the page on aggression… Many types, but Sweetie’s is probably one of two forms of affective aggression…which is one of 7 forms of rage aggression… the other major type is predatory aggression. The two forms of affective ag are hiearchial dominance and territorial. Hierarchy aggession is what I have talked about before… establishing my place in the pecking order of her group… This is generally confirmed by grooming presentation. Sweetie presents herself to me for grooming… now occurring many times per day… I think that the dominance aggression has now extinguished, as we have found our relationship. The other form is territorial… and I still need to be on guard for that… This form of affective aggression is based on a statement of territory ownership… Around the main building, Sweetie is territorial protective… and so I am very careful about coming and going… At my cabin, it is my territory… and she clearly understands that… Interestingly, research has established a direct relationship between the neurotransmitter serotonin and aggression… The more serotonin the less aggression. Prozac for Sweetie you are asking????

Then I managed to lose a piece of the computer system to get on line… probably from when I walked down and took a header in the wet grass… Rained all day… While retracing my steps, Sweetie decided to become my hat… and so I carried her around on my head for a while… She didn’t want to leave… so I decided to go to MY territory and we could have some play time… When I sat down, we did the now ritual of looking at all her owies… and then I told her I wanted to get something done… She protested, and I gave in… I laid down on the bench and Sweetie decided to go exploring… She was into my shorts and found my ‘parts’… The penis to her is just like her pendulous clitoris…so nothing to interesting there… I am like her… but then she discovered the scrotum and decided that this was a strange thing… where is mine???? She palpated the testes but gently... ARE you crazy… you have a spider monkey doing a learning session on your genitals that has managed to tear into you 39 times… But as I understand her behavior more and remember that she is a 12 yo… discovering… I felt pretty good.. Her interest continued for about 4 minutes and then she put her body into my shorts and went to sleep… Very cute… We both nodded off for about 30 minutes… She was curled up inside my shorts and had her tail wrapped around my leg. When we both awoke, she went off and I found the piece I lost… It has been displaced during my little header. It is now everning of Day 13 and the cutest thing just happened… Sweetie splayed out her younger sister Winkie and did a dental exam… Winkie is having her permanent teeth come in and they are a bit sore… Sweetie massaged her incisors… and then gently licked the obvious sore teeth… This is Day 12 and 13 por blog… I will then feed Isaiah, who naturally lost his eye drain… Saving us some ketamine to knock him down for removal. Feed Piedra and take a shower… Hasta manana.

Oh, one thing more... A number of you, having seen the picture of Sweetie have asked about the long skin color appendage between her legs... No it is not a penis... She is a she... It is an unusual anatomical adaptation called a pendulous clitoris... She urinates through the anatomical appendage, but I am told that when she sees a female, she can't figure out where their PC is... and when she sees a male, she thinks that the penis is the PC... Very fascinating from animal behavior observation perspective.

Everyday I am here convinces me more and more of the tremendous gift that Carol and Earl are providing to the animal world.

Sweetie - My Best Friend and Worst Enemy

Day 10

Not much new today... Got to go to Golfito for shopping run and re-introduced to Piedra the baby raccoon. Weighed her today at 330 grams or about 10% gain in 7 days... That is acceptable. Sweetie and I had our afternoon love session and I had an early retirement at 4PM... Rains started about 5 and continued for 6 hours (now)... still raining. ONLY pix I could get uploaded.

Day 9

Well, it looks more and more like I am NOT going to be able to correct the back log of stuff for the blog for a while... So, let me do a summary here... Day 1 arrival, Day 2 orientation, Day 3 routines and protocols... introductions to all the animals... Assigned Piedra, a weeks old baby raccoon that was accidentally hit my a machete causing amputation of her left arm half way to elbow and 2 fingers on her right foot... Piedra and me learned each other today... I fed her, clean her and her cage and basically cared for her wounds. Besides PIEDRA there are one Mono Titi (Squirrel monkey) with rear paralysis, 3 free roaming young female spider monkeys, named Winkie 2, Sweetie 4 and Poppie 6yo. Spider monkeys are highly endangered, which if I ever get a high speed connection, I will explain. Poppie is about 17 equivalent and is looking for a troop of wild spider monkeys to join... based on attraction to a male. She is just coming into sexual maturity... Sweetie is equivalent to 12 and she is the one who was not sure about me entering her group... Noting malicious, but 31 bites later, 19 stitches in 4 places, some very deep, Sweetie and I found our relationship... Last two days she and I have been nothing but pals... No bites and lots of monkey hugs, kisses, cooing, and she even took a nap with me. Sweetie and I are going to be fine... She has accepted me into her group. Winks is our baby... still taking bottle... The Sanctuary has two sides... the public side for tours and the rehab and release side for those animals that will be going back to wild and those that are injured and in some form of rehab... like a Margay named Isaiah. Isaiah was hit by a motorcycle a few weeks ago and came to us with a severe laceration of his eye... After surgery to remove his eye and close his orbit, he now is awaiting his new quarters. He will cost $30K to keep over a lifetime... and there is a small possiblity he can be trained to hunt with one eye and be released... 5%. He is currently my patient... and I am his keeper. Also on the rehab side is a baby howler monkey named Congita, who will be released when she is big enough to join a group. Then we have a Jaguarudi waiting for release and a couple of free roaming howlers, a young Scarlet macaw in rehab, 6 white mice that are eventually food for Isiah... Last night they escaped and we have recovered 4... The other too are probably already a cat's dinner. We have a young cebus (white faced) monkey in socialization and we basically live on this side (rehab) with the kitchen, conference and dining room (1 room), quarters for the owners and guests... I have my own cabin about 150 meters from beach... so I hear the surf all night. We have a young parrokete and 2 domestic cats... We also have the clinic/lab on this side, which is mine to organize and stock. Isaiah - I forgot above... is a small arboral feline, about 30 lbs at maturity. It looks much like a leopard for its coat/spots... and his a fierce hunter... In the ocelot family, it hunts high and ocelots hunt low... On the public side we do tours... our main source of revenue. We have the animals that are not going to be released for a variety of reasons... and they include a young Toucan that is being protected from other Toucans... these animals attack each other and they are pretty nasty birds... Fruit Loops cereal asside, not a nice bird. We have a hand ful of parrots and a group of parroketes... Our parrots have produced young... Then we have a Tayra which is a Cental American weasel. His name is Boogie... A collard peccary (wild pig) who needs companionship... and that is one of my challenges... A troop of cebus (white faced monkeys), that can never be released for many reason, but primarily because they came from different sources and locations, and unless we know where they come from we can never just release them... They have to go back to their base territory or they will be killed. Among the cebus' are Loco (a young cebus that was kept in a box) - who is mentally challenged - by the way cebus monkeys make the list of the top three most intelligent creatures on earth... Man and chimps are the other tow. They travel in groups and are known to distract your attention and pick your pocket or one great story is of a group of 8 here in Costa Rica... 3 would wait out on the road for a car... They would basically be diversion for the other 5... As the people got out of the car to take pictures of the cute little dancing monkeys, the other 5 would get into the car and take phones, keys, money, anything and everything and disappear behind the car... We also have 2 2 toed Sloths, another amazing animal. Heart beats 11 times per minute when active and 4 times when resting... On the rehab side we have some free flying Toucans and a virgin flock of Scarlets... OK... I better send this before I lose my connection... More soon.

Disculpeme (Excuse Me) I Know These are NOT in ORDER

I understand that some of the posts won't make sense, because the background posts are still waiting to get there... I am doing my best to be clear... but if something doesn't make sense, you know why...

I owe the journal reports for Days 1-6... which are written, but lost here and there...

Perdon...

Day 7

OK… Day 7 begins… Started with a very restful sleep, no bugs… 6AM… awoke to visit from Sweetie… détente for area around my quarters… Coffee and then I went with Earl over to start the generator…While putting gas into the generator, Sweetie was half sitting on shoulder… Everything fine… She went to grab my glasses… no problem… I know that is going to happen… Then I had a small light (Steve’s gift) clipped to my shirt and Sweetie went to grab it… I mistakenly reached up to put it in my pocket… Sweetie did not like that and grabbed me… little bites … I then walked away and after a few moments Sweetie charged me and bit me on right hand and leg… Unfortunately hand wound will mean we do sewing practice again, although I might try the suture gun today… 8 cm laceration down to subq fat – through dermis… Compression applied and I now have it held together for the moment with homemade steri strip. A few other bites on fingers…lots of blood, but not going to stitch those… Now up to 31 tatoos… of which only 4 needed stitches… well maybe more, but that’s all I am going to do… A few old ones are slightly infected… I am sad that my movements are more and more restrictive… but we need to establish a permanent détente pretty soon. Today I might go to Jimenez to meet the supply chain.
Spider monkeys are fasinating creatures. I am falling in love with them… but I know that everyone reading this is saying… R U crazy… Sweetie (spider) has hit you over 30 times in 7 days… But, these are behavioral anomalies that will extinguish… Chacon our Scarlet in rehab and I have been making friends… Chacon came to the Sanctuary with a dislocated wing and missing flight feathers… probably from previous owner. Chacon is caged whenever we do anything with Isaiah… (margay)… When I fed Isaiah last evening, he took a swat at me again, but missed… So, Day 7 started with a bit of a drama – trauma… but I am sure it will go well… I managed to get a salt water bath last night, a clean shave and felt great prior to bed.

3 Days in Costa Rica

I have a lot to tell about my first three days... I wrote out the journal for all three days, but I am having a bit of a problem making it translate between PC and MAC... So stay tuned... Great stuff to follow.

PROGRESS

Pura vida
As we enter our slow season (rainy), here is the latest from la selva. Progress has been made in expanding our capabilities for acute care on site. We have received equipment donations of two commercial grade microscopes, a fully operation sonograph/m, a small refrig for vet drugs, a nebulizer and various misc supplies. We have managed to procure a centrifuge, a complete small animal incubator and basic supplies for laboratory testing and acute care. Our equipment and supplies continue to grow as our needs are better defined. We have recently become members of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council provides education, training and support for wildlife rehabilitators, liaison with wildlife professionals, organizations and agencies. We have also been registered with JUST CAUSE. We have established connections and in some cases relationships with technical, media and financial professionals in North America, South America and Europe. On site we have commenced a number of building projects to create and improve habitats and amenities for all of us animals... We humans may be the one with the most developed brains, but no mistake... we share this world with many other species big and small. Whether wild or domestic, we all share LIFE. So, we work along side and in cooperation with the Ticos and Ticas... Pura vida

Exact Location -Coordinates

Osa Wildlife Sanctuary is located at 08.67917 N Latitude and 83.3254 W Longitude

Morpho Azul - Costa Rican National

Borde UPDATE

Well our margay is a boy (male) about 6 months and not weaned. Apparently for whatever the reason he and his mother were separated. Our boy Borde is doing fine... and we are now beginning the logistics of building him a permanent home.

Any donations FOR HIS HOME would be appreciated.

Borde the Margay is officially named Isaiah...

Our Official LOGO

Borde - The Margay

Well our injured ocelot is now back at the Sanctuary doing well after surgery... I was slightly incorrect... it is a Margay or Tree Ocelot and the primary difference is that ocelot's hunt on the ground and margay's hunt in the trees. The below pictures are NOT of our injured friend, now named Borde -- Spanish for Edge... Since it certainly is living on the edge. Convalescing now, release is dependent on vision in left eye.

The Margay (Leopardus wiedii) is a spotted cat native to Central and South America. Named for Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, it is a solitary and nocturnal animal that prefers remote sections of the rainforest. Although it was once believed to be vulnerable to extinction, the IUCN now lists it as "Least Concern". It roams the rainforests from Mexico to Argentina.

Physical characteristics

The Margay can weigh about 3 to 9 kg (6.6–20 lbs), have a body length of 45 to 80 cm (18 to 32 in) and a tail length of 33 to 51 cm (13 to 20 in). It is very similar to the larger Ocelot, although the head is a bit shorter, the tail and legs are longer, and the spotted pattern on the tail is different. Most notably the Margay is a much more skillful climber than its relative, and it is sometimes called the Tree Ocelot because of this skill. Whereas the Ocelot mostly pursues prey on the ground, the Margay may spend its entire life in the trees, leaping after and chasing birds and monkeys through the treetops. Indeed, it is one of only two cat species with the ankle flexibility necessary to climb head-first down trees (the other being the Clouded Leopard). Its ankles can turn up to 180 degrees, it can grasp branches equally well with its fore and hind paws, and it is able to jump considerable distances. The Margay has been observed to hang from branches with only one foot.

Margay

Margay in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Carnivora
Family:
Felidae
Genus:
Leopardus
Species:
L. wiedii
Binomial name
Leopardus wiedii(Schinz, 1821)

Margay range map
Synonyms
Felis wiedii

The Difference between Boys and Girls

No pictures of the injured ocelot for obvious reasons...

Jazz, one of our squirrel monkeys turns out to be a SHE, when we thought it was a he... Ummmmmmmmm

Jazz was scheduled for a neutering... when we discovered SHE needs to be spayed...

Perhaps I will assist on this in a few weeks.

New VET

We are currently in discussion with a VET in Spain that has expressed interest in the Sanctuary. Our objective is to locate and commission a new consultative vet, after we lost our last one to a new job.