Wild times at Inti Wara Yassi Animal Sanctuary
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| Eric grooming one of his ladies, Totita |
We found out about this volunteer opportunity way back in Ecuador, and it had been in the back of my mind ever since. This was my third time volunteering with wildlife, and Brian's first... boy were we in for a surprise! Inti Wara Yassi is a wildlife sanctuary that has been operating for the last 25 years, and currently looks after over 100 animals- monkeys, parrots, small mammals, even a puma and an Andean bear! The majority of these animals are victims of the pet trade, where time and time again wild mothers are killed so that their babies can be taken and sold on the black market. They do their best to rehabilitate animals to be released back into the wild, or even released to be semi-wild but still supported by the centre. Here's an excerpt from their website and what they're all about:
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| Roddy the Coati- think jungle raccoon. |
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| The hilarious Carolina |
"The CIWY, throughout this time dedicated its efforts to combat the trafficking of wild animals, rescue them from ill treatment and illegal trafficking and preserve the flora and fauna. In recent years CIWY has emphasized the work of rehabilitation and care of wild animals from traffic, private homes where they lived as pets, circuses and zoos, or even wild animals harmed by the destruction of their natural habitat.
As a leading Bolivian organization in the rights of wildlife and its care, CIWY hopes to achieve a radical impact to change our country's point of view on wildlife and contribute with its work to combat illegal trafficking that takes them out of their natural habitat."
- https://intiwarayassi.org/
- https://intiwarayassi.org/
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| Sparkles grooming up a storm- head, neck, chest and arms. Lucky Brian! |
Brian
and I were assigned to the Capuchins, small cheeky, mischievous
little muffins! This area is divided into two sections: “Heaven”,
where the monkeys spend their days on runners, and are rotated to new
ones each day, and “Earth”, where the monkeys are in cages, and
rotated to new cages as we clean and fill them with branches and
other enrichment. It was sad to see, but the 19 mostly males in this
section have been through too much trauma and are too aggressive,
unpredictable, or stressed to be handled every day. Many do not have
the social skills they need to interact with other monkeys, as they
never had the chance to learn from their mothers. Meanwhile in
Heaven, these monkeys are more or less calm and socialized well
enough to be semi-free, and have more chance for interaction with each
other as well as more stimulation with their new locations each day.
As it turns out most of these monkeys aren't fans of women, so over
in Heaven it's boys only! Brian was so lucky, morning and night he
walked around like a pirate with monkeys on his shoulders. Some would
sit on his head and hold on, others onto the side of his leg like
little toddlers. It was hilarious one rainy afternoon when he was
putting Helga back in her cage and she dove under his shirt to try to
stay dry! Brian made friends with some real sweethearts- Helga,
Lemmy, 50 Cent, and especially Sparkles, who loved to groom him.  |
| Walking with Marucha girl |
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| Sweet Chucki boy |
Meanwhile my heart melted for Chuki, who had a sad injured jaw but
which gave him the funniest little face, Pedro, Oliver, and my sweet Talula
who just melted my heart. I also got to care for 3 spider monkeys
who were rescued from a circus, and did live on runners. Sadly they
don't have the social skills to interact well with others of their
kind, and weren't able to integrate into the spider monkey colony up
in the forest. Villa, Marucha, and Gepetto were great though, especially Marucha always giving you the stink eye and scrunching up her face, or surprisingly taking your hand with hers, or her tail when she wanted to be moved to a new area.
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| Geppetto never minded sharing with the wild squirrel monkey babies |
Our
days there were long ones! We would start at 7am, feeding bananas for
breakfast. I would sweep under the cages with another volunteer, and
Brian would join team bro in putting the monkeys out on their
runners. After breakfast we would finish cleaning, give snacks, and
prepare enrichment- heading into the jungle with a machete to chop
branches for enclosures, or building tiny cages filled with straw
with food hidden inside. For Brian he might be repairing runners, or
helping to build new frames that support them. Meanwhile it's food
food food, chopping, portioning, and feeding. Some popular meals for capuchins are of pineapple, beets, chicken soup, dried fish, rice balls, hard-boiled eggs and banana cake. Dinner time was always
a challenge, as you had to chase away the wild capuchins that liked
to come down to visit for a free meal. Fabritzio was the alpha male
of one particular troop that was a menace! He has no fear, and is a
vindictive little s.o.b. One day I stared him down and threw a rock
at him as he was trying to steal food from Marucha, one of the spider
monkey's plates- only to have him come later and jump on my head
while I was feeding another monkey! Scared the daylights out of me I
tell ya, this guy is a like a terrible mob boss.Really the best part was always getting to just give some love to those who welcomed it- a little grooming, scratching and handholding, it is all just great for the soul!
Sometimes
we got to help in other areas of the sanctuary too. Our favourite was
the few times we got to help carry heavy backpacks of food up to the
Spider Park, and hang out with the our furry spider monkey friends.
Bibi and Negra were always keen for attention, and would come sit
right on your lap to be groomed. Brian got to visit Baloo, the Andean
bear, and we both loved our chance to meet Marley the puma at the end
of our 2 weeks. One day I got the delightful job of chopping a huge
termite nest off of one of the enclosures where the parrots are- they
fell down like rain as I hacked away at the nest up on the
cross-beams. But boy were the monkeys ever happy when we got to leave
some yummy chunks of termite-mound in their cages!  |
| Baby macaw rescued from a hotel. His brother didn't make it :( |
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| Pirata, the one-eyed parrot |
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| 3 year old Marley. She was rescued at 3 months and will live out her life here, unable to fend for herself in the wild. |
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| The wonderful Sophia, Sabrina, Devon, and Elodie- with Mom & Dad ;) |
We made some great friends there too. Other volunteers (all young muffins in their 20s- our dear Sophie from NZ gave us the affectionate title of Mom and Dad- haha) joining us there were from Colombia, Canada, the States, France, Belgium, and Bolivia. A few nights we enjoyed a pub in town (particularly for Brian during hockey playoffs!) but often the days were just so long and tiring that we hardly had the energy to cook a proper dinner. We had some laughs and all made it through together!
Volunteering at CIWY was challenging (and oh so hot!), but such an enriching experience overall. It was inspiring to see Nena, the founder work so tirelessly for these animals, as she has the last 25 years, as well as the vet who has been there for over a year would work all day, and then spend her night looking after a baby squirrel monkey- kept as a pet for less than a week before the owners realized what a task it was! It must be so hard to always see people coming and going, sometimes running short on volunteers, money, and supplies. These animals are like wards of the state, yet the government does nothing to help fund this organization.
If you would like to contribute to the tireless work they do, visit this link for Friends of Inti Wara Yassi: https://intiwarayassi.org/index.php?id=519
Gracias on behalf of our furry friends!
We moved on May 3rd with heavy hearts to leave these little sweeties we grew to love so quickly. Onwards and upwards back to the highlands (and away from the hot hot heat thankfully), with some moldy backpacks full of the stinkiest clothes possible, looking forward to the colonial town of Sucre, laundry, and no bugs- Horay!
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