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When we arrived at the sanctuary by boat, we were greeted by Sweetie, (the equivalent of a 13 yo girl) spider monkey. She was ‘pre-teen’ so was less mischievous than Winkie, (the equivalent of a 7 yo girl) spider monkey. To let us know we were an okay part of her troop, she would approach people and let them scratch her. She would show them where to scratch her exactly. If you didn’t scratch where she told you to, she would let you know. We first learned you never hold a monkey. The only reason monkeys are held is if they are about to be eaten, so they will fight ferociously as a mode of protection. We also were not allowed to hold Cade, as to a monkey it would look like we were trying to eat him—so, each person had to walk alone, not even holding hands was allowed. Monkeys are incredibly strong. This little Sweetie last week picked up a 50lb block of ice and hurled it through the air. You don’t want to do anything that will upset them. The monkeys are never kept in cages here. They are what we call ‘soft release’, meaning that they are loose, running about on the grounds until they get reach sexual maturity...then the boys come a calling. Eventually, she will go off with one of them and join that troop. We didn’t see the monkey who would be the equal to a 16 yo girl. She was busy ‘talking to her boyfriends.’ LOL! These monkeys came the only way a human can get a baby monkey...by killing the mother and pulling the baby off her. The exotic pet trade is a lucrative business. It is hard to condemn people who can get 3,000 dollars for a baby parrot...which is more than they can make in who knows how many months. So, the owner of the sanctuary...hires poachers. He gives them lucrative jobs, and uses their skills to actually benefit animals. He told a story of one of his employees who was a former poacher—a panther escaped from the sanctuary into the jungle beyond. This poacher went into the jungle, and three days later returned with this panther (alive) that had escaped the sanctuary. He tracked it, and eventually buried himself with leaves tying a hunk of meat to his big toe! Crazy right? But, like the guy said, these people have been brought up this way, it is how their family makes ends meet. It’s not right, but having respect for their developed skills and giving them a sound job is one small step to making a change. After learning about the pet trade, and monkey business, we started walking around the sanctuary. Oh, one other thing about these monkeys...when you are walking they like to ride on the tallest person. At one point, that was Matt! It was very funny… The first animal we looked at were a pair of scarlet macaws. They had been kept in a shoe box under a bed, and their wings never developed properly, so they cannot fly. We learned a lot of interesting things about them. Males and females are identical—to humans anyhow, and the only way we (humans) can tell the sex of a macaw is with a DNA test! Second most interesting (and slightly sad) fact we learned—the Osa peninsula is one of the few places on earth scarlet macaws are wild. In that area, there are approximately 250 birds. In New York City, the population of scarlet macaws is vastly higher. Even sadder...let’s just say everyone in NYC with a macaw wanted to give them to the wildlife sanctuary to rehab and release—they couldn’t—because of bird flu. These birds live for 80 years in captivity. They are very smart, and someone once said you can tell a parrot who comes from a good home...they don’t cuss! Kinkachu. This was an animal I had actually never heard of or seen before. They are nocturnal, and oddly, pollinators!! They have this enormously long, skinny tongue. They were actually the main pollinators in the rainforest—Bees? No, there were no bees in the rainforest until guess who brought them there?? US! Prior to our arrival from the other side of the world, the rainforest was pollinated by mammals. Largely bats, some birds, and creatures like the kinkachu. This animals name in Spanish is ’martillo’ which mean hammer. He weighs a mere 5 lbs, but he has the ’claws of a hammer.’ This cute little guy can tear open a green coconut on the beach with his bare claws. Hence the name. Another fascinating fact, his teeth are that of a carnivore, but he eats only fruit. So, sharp teeth, claws of a hammer, up all night...and, a certified ’pet’ in the USA. Paris Hilton had one. They are not endangered, and therefore can be kept as a pet. If you want that for a pet! Toucans. Hmmm...we all have the image of Toucan Sam, but I was shocked to learn that toucans are like terrorists in the jungle! Those beaks? They are actually serrated, and can cut through a finger in a minute! They use those beaks to tunnel deep into nests and eat young, eggs, etc of other birds! In slow years, they will even cannibalize the other toucans! Notice you don’t ever see people walking around with toucans on their shoulders? Now you know why! Sloths. My new, without a doubt, favorite animal. So much to say...First of all, two toed and three toed sloths—not related at all. Their only commonality is that they have two spurs on their spine instead of one. Otherwise, a completely different genetic make up. They are the oldest of the placental mammals, only marsupials are older. They used to be 20 feet tall and 6000 pounds, and were the fiercest predator in the jungle killing mastodons and saber toothed tigers! They have done a 100% evolutionary change, yet still have the highest bone density in the WORLD! They now eat leaves, and were social, but now are solitary. They hang upside down to ‘relax’ and if you were to shoot a sloth, they would not even fall from the tree! Which, it should be noted, no one would...their diet consists entirely of poisonous leaves. If you eat poisonous leaves and you are fast...the toxins go to your heart and your liver, and you die. A sloth eats poisonous leaves...yet their heart rate—ELEVEN BEATS A MINUTE! And, they can slow it to FIVE beats a minute if they are ‘resting’— A mother sloth teaches a baby how to eat—she starts him out with arsenic...then maybe a little cyanide...then they teach them to eat an alkaloid. That combination of food neutralizes one another. What a sloth eats...comes out in a MONTH! They also are a complete ecosystem with all types of bugs living in their fur. The dung beetle is one of those creatures, and it will actually climb off while the sloth is pooping, do it’s thing, and then climb back on the sloth! Since the sloth only comes down once a month, it will actually lose 30% of it’s body mass, just from pooping. They are so slow their fur actually grows a type of algae, known as sloth algae, and houses a type of moth known as a ’sloth moth’! They can actually have NINE HUNDRED species living on them at one time! The only thing a sloth cannot eat from it’s diet is licopene, so, it grows it in the sloth algae that grows on its back. The sloth can then absorb the licopene from its hair follicles’! A sloths joints rotate 180 degrees, so when they need to move high up in the tree, they can exert minimum effort, and simply rotate! Even his head can rotate 180 degrees, because he has three additional neck bones. The sloth’s heart, and all organs for that matter, are located on his back—because he spends his life upside down. His belly fur is short, but his back hair is long, so he can ’drip’ dry in the jungle. Since they have been around for 65 million years, they have adapted to life in the jungle. They outlived the dinosaurs, but like the kinkachu they still have carnivore teeth. They only travel 125 feet on a ’busy day’, so we could go in the cage (which is where I scored the beautiful, in my opinion, picture of the sloth). They are exothermic, which means they have to ability to drop their body temperature based on the surrounding environment, yet are warm blooded. Not much will kill a sloth because they are a bag of bones. Not much, except dogs. There are a lot of ’stray’ dogs on the peninsula. A dog will kill, just to kill, so they are the greatest threat to the sloth. They reproduce every other year, and they take a year to gestate, and each sloth lives about 30 years. As you can see, we got quite an education in sloths...and I LOVE them!!! My favorite animal of the rainforest...they are just so cool! Red Lored Amazon Parrots. These pretty birds are a status symbol of many houses in Costa Rica. They are not a ’legal’ pet, but many families have them. Some believe you can tell what kind of a house you come from by having one of these birds. If put in a cage and their wings are clipped, they start to imitate you. If you cuss...they cuss, they not only imitate your voice, but also your emotions. They can be rehabilitated if caught early. Once they have been in a cage for five years they cannot be released. The sanctuary told how they set up a roadblock for people coming home from the beach during a Costa Rican holiday, and confiscated 483 parrots. We go to the beach and come home with hermit crabs, in CR they come home with parrots. They are not legal, so they were released. Since they imitate your voice, if you are ever walking around in the jungle and hear a bird with a smokers cough or one who starts saying crass things about your mother...you will know you are near the sanctuary. Those two birds were rescued from a crack house. Every morning they woke up to the bird imitating a smokers cough. Now, he has a bird that was going in and attacking people at a local bar...his catch phrase—”I want my lawyer.” Seriously. And, he does an awesome ladies laugh! Someday soon, he will be released too. White faced monkeys. These were the saddest of the group. They all were severely damaged, mostly psychologically from being abused as pets. These monkeys are the most intelligent of the monkeys. They are the ’organ grinder’ monkeys. People in the early 1900’s used them for that because they were expert thieves!! He calls them the monkey mafia, because you are born into your troop and you die in your troop. You don’t leave. In the wild, these monkeys will overtake another troop, killing all the males to gain new blood in females. They are the only population who behaves like this. In spite of this, they have been able to make a troop here. New monkeys are put in a cage just out of arms reach. Because they are social, sometimes they will accept the other monkey. While we were there they had a 30 year old male in such a situation. Because of his advanced age, the rehabber was unsure if they would ever accept him. In the 50’s and 60’s these monkeys were used to study psychological trauma, because their reactions to such things were so similar to ours. Creepy huh? We did see one monkey that rocked back and forth constantly. Sad really. He was kept in a shoe box under a bed. These monkeys in the wild are very cute, curious and playful. The ones in this cage were not. In fact when the rehabber got too close to the cage one monkey grabbed his sleeve and tore a hole in it. He told us that last week she ripped his entire shirt off. Because of that, I was a little Malena about those monkeys!! We saw a few other animals, but those were the most memorable. The facility is just amazing, and I love their approach to animals and the care they give them. If you go to this area, this trip is money well spent.
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