Local Supplier 'Cosan', makes magnificent gift

On Friday evening a large lorry arrived at Canaote carrying one hundred sacks of cement. The co operative farm workers assisted in moving the sacks to a safe dry location along the corridor of the main house. The cement was a magnificent gift to us from the major supplier 'Çosan'. The owner of Cosan, Felice Costamagna, had visited Canaote earlier in the day. He took a keen interest in the children and stayed with them several hours. Clearly he could see how important our work here is and wanted to do something to help. We were able to explain to him why we were appealing for help with the cost of cementing the ground in all our enclosures. Having listened to our explanation he responded at once with this wonderful gift and true to his promise the lorry arrived later the same day with the cement load.

We want this cementing to be done well and professionally. We have reached an agreement with a local group to do the work. This is cement and cannot be allowed to stand around. The work has to be done now.

 

We are thrilled with this response to our appeal. Many people have sent donations, which will be used to obtain more sacks of cement needed to complete the work. You may remember that we need a total of two hundred sacks to cover all the ground beneath the enclosures. If you have a donation just waiting to be sent, now is the time.

Sweet talkin', wet kissin', Maniña.

 

 

Sunday morning early, the family of Lucio arrived from Caracas. They had started out very early driving though the pouring rain to spend time with their monkey son Lucio. Hey! wait a minute, that's not Lucio in the picture. Right, its that sweet talkin' ,wet kissin' Maniña

The family always make a tour around the other enclosures, not spending time with Lucio alone. Our camera caught a special moment whilst Gilda was handing out compote and biscuits to Maniña, Miss Billy and Tutti. Unfortunately it rained hard for the whole visit. But undaunted they spent many hours with all the children.

InParque visit Canaote

 

On Friday morning a large bus arrived here at Canaote with fifty or so young people from the Inparque Foundation. They were led by two professors from La Salle University in San Carlos. We were able to give them a good rounded environmental experience. Firstly I introduced them to our howler monkeys and then David took them on a tour of the Botanic garden. We were pleased and surprised by the enthusiasm which young people showed. Many of them had phone cameras and of course our monkey  children obliged with some good poses The monkeys really do love visitors. Clearly the trip around the Botanic garden was popular as most of the children returned still munching fruit from the garden.

My name is Paulo and now I have a family and a home.

It seems that hardly a week goes by now without a request for a place for a monkey at Canaote. This week has been no exception. We accepted a capuchin monkey from Asoguau in Valencia We refused a further capuchin from Valencia because we just did not have the facility available to care for him. Our facility is tuned to the care of Howler Monkeys in the main but we do have a unit capable of supporting up to five capuchins. The child we accepted is a real waif. He arrived more or less penniless with nothing except the cage he stood up in. He didn’t even have a name. He was found wandering the streets in Valencia and apprehended by the police. We have no history, he is fully grown, appears to be in good health but like so many pets at this time he has been abandoned. We have been working furiously to make a residence for him. He cannot join the existing troop of capuchins because we have already two boys and boys always fight. We are lucky that they have learned to tolerate each other. We have him in temporary accommodation overnight and we expect to have a more suitable enclosure, ready for him tomorrow.
This of course is underlining a growing problem. Many people are on the move for one reason or another. Many are moving abroad permanently. This is a bad situation particularly for cats and dogs; so many are being abandoned into the street.
Our shelter is a privately funded one, and we have the resources to help only a few. Too often these days with an aching heart we refuse shelter. I have the love and the will but unfortunately that does not buy a lot of chicken.

Dishevelled and hatless

Somehow, whenever I take pictures of Monito, he always looks the same but this morning I got lucky and I have a truly new picture of this young man. Even for me, visiting Lucio, Schatov and Monito is an experience. They come at me from every direction. Monito’s favourite approach is on the swing. Having got it up to speed, he launches himself at me at high velocity flinging his arms high to catch my hair. Schatov jumps down on me from the bamboo walkway whilst Lucio comes in with stealth from the ground. I always exit somewhat dishevelled and hatless.

The continuing heavy rain reminds me that we still have work to do on the cement program; seriously we have only covered a small area of what is needed. A number of readers have been most generous but we are still far short of the funds needed to complete this work. In particular, Schatov, Lucio and Monito’s enclosure needs a lot of preparation. This time of year is particularly sensitive because of the rotting mangoes and the heavy rain. This condition is very favourable to the emergence of nematodes in the soil. So far we have been lucky with no infections but we will be much more secure against parasites when the enclosures are cemented over.

The single picture is Monito today and the other is Lucio and Monito preparing a double whammie.

Gis a kiss!

Maniña is a four year old male red Howler. The name Maniña, in Spanish is a female one. He was first thought to be a girl but the human family never got around to changing his name. Getting the sex wrong with Howlers is a common mistake. The female gentilia are external and give the appearance of the male organ.
Maniña came to us from a family in Aruagua, Venezuela. He is highly domesticated. Quite used to dining out in restaurants, is house trained, you might sometimes pass him on his way out of the loo. Confidentially he wouldn't be seen dead in diapers. He loves cleaning his teeth and he really does clean them, not just bite the brush. Altogether an exceptional Howler monkey. To top it all, he is crazy about kisses. You see him in this picturs delivering a smacker to our friend Gabriela.

Well love is in the air because not to be outdone, Lucio demonstrates that he is also a good kisser. Again he is a very sophisticated person. He loves human company as well as his monkey friends. Don't wear your 'kiss me quick' hat when your in his company because just before you get the wet smaker, you will loose your hat.

From our garden.

I have never made much mention of the produce of our botanic garden. The garden is actually a major contributor to the variety of food we are able to give our monkeys. Our pictures show white egg plant or aubergine, a large pumpkin, these are among the vegetables and there is a wide variety of fruit. Our picture shows Palm nuts (being held by the helper in the blue shirt)and Santol (on the scales), these are real favorites with the children, and Cherry tomatoes (although we also grow normal size ones) but these are only a few of the many hundreds of fruit we have in the botanic garden. Just to name a few. Mango, Gallup nut, Coco nut, Surinam cherry, Star fruit, Governors plum, Nispero , Banana, Mandarin, Oranges. One of my favorites and certainly theirs is the cactus fruit Pitahya this is the red fruit shown parted centrally. All of these and many more find a way to the feeding trays of our monkeys.

The little boy that Santa Claus forgot.

Marco came to us when he was only 500 grams in weight. He was dropped off by a local farmer who told us that he found him alone on his land, in an area that had been attacked by forest fires. Since that time he has had a varied history. At first, whilst he was very small he lived with me. We had an idea that Sussy might be a suitable surrogate mother and we decided to give it a try. Sussy was a very experience mother, having brought many very fine and powerful monkeys into the world. As it happened she took him as one of her own and we breathed a sigh of relief. He traveled everywhere on her back and shared her house during his adolescence. Everyday they were together, and every day Sussy taught him how to choose his food and how to negotiate the ropes and complex walkways in their enclosure.

Finally he grew too active and boisterous to continue living with her and it was necessary to think of another arrangement.
At that time we discovered that Gabriela's young lady 'Vicky' was looking for a partner and we decided to give this idea a try. It was an immediate success. Now Marco and Vicky is an inseparable and happy pair, living free in the trees. We are sure that sometime there will be a baby Marco or Marca. This is a wonderful transition of which we are all very proud. To move from waif and who I once described as 'the little boy that Santa Claus forgot' to his successful relationship and life with Vicky at the home of Gabriela, is a miracle.
Our pictures show him as a young man in the fields here at Canaote to a photograph taken during the last few days. Look at the difference in size. When you see that cute little ball of red fur at the roadside, remember how they look when they are a few years older. Average life span of Howlers in captivity is 25 years.
I am grateful to Gabriela for this remarkable new picture of Marco which I received today and which I now treasure.