They tried to make me go to rehab......

So, how does the ARCAS rehabilitation process work?

There are several essential ingredients required for ARCAS to function in it's rescue/rehab capability.

The first is, unsurprisingly, animals. These arrive from a variety of sources, but most come from CONAP, the government conservation agency. The animals and birds have been seized at checkpoints whilst being smuggled either out of the Petén region of Guatemala (the rainforest part), or at border checkpoints where the animals are destined for the international wildlife market. Some animals arrive from other sources - a spider monkey was brought in today that had been kept as a pet until it's owner decided to release it in a park, and a croc was brought in 2 days ago after it was found swimming rather too close to an upmarket local hotel. Once here, animals remain property of CONAP until their release into the wild or relocation to other collections - at all stages, CONAP has the final say in their future.

The second requirement is money and ARCAS derives it's funding principally from 2 sources. CONAP provides 40% of the yearly budget, plus 5 full time workers and a monthly food donation. The remaining 60% of annual income comes from the volunteers who work at the centre, each paying US$125 per week for the pleasure. Last year the turnover of ARCAS was about $100,000. Many of the facilities at the Flores ARCAS site where I am working were built by the Japanese Development Fund on the late 90's, but funding from external sources dried up in about 2003.

Following on from the last requirement is the third essential ingredient, which are volunteers. Due to the amount of animals, the quarantine area of rehab is where most of the daily ARCAS work happens - most require cleaning and feeding at least twice a day, often more.

The rehabiliation process has 3 stages, the first 2 of which take place in quarantine. These are:

1) Medical rehabiliation

2) Physical rehabiliation

3) Behavioural Rehabiliation

Behavioural rehab is the most time consuming and difficult element of the process, and increases with difficulty in general as the animals get larger and more intelligent.

The animals at ARCAS can be divided into 5 groups when it comes to the rehabiliation process:

1)Reptiles

2)Birds

3)Small Mammals

4)Felines

5) Primates

I hope I'll briefly be able to cover each group in the next few posts, along with the histories of the animals that are here.

Cute photos!

So, at the risk of boring you with in-depth stores of how to approach rehabilitation in different species, I'll just stick up some nice pictures instead!


The baby spider monkey, immediately after arrival - more of her in the next post!


Juvenile spider monkey doing his favourite thing


Jaguar! This is at neighbouring Peten Zoo, not at ARCAS - ours is smaller


Margays -I'm looking after these at the moment


White tailed deer - part of a breedding programme


Bedroom company


Baby crocodile - still need feeding by hand



Juvenile kinkaju - just moved to a larger enclosure so we don't have to take him climbing!

With the animals

OK, so for those of you who would like to know what the animals are: the first 2 are both spider monkeys - one a juvenile, the second a baby at 5 months, and the cat is an ocelot.

They are just a small selection of the large number of birds, mammals and reptiles that are at ARCAS. At the moment are rought inventory is:
BIRDS:
300-400 parrots of 5 or 6 species, ranging from juvenile to adult.
50 or so Scarlet Macaws
About 10 Toucans
20 or so Chacaracas (not sure what they're called really, they look like black turkeys)
REPTILES
6 crocodiles (5 are babies)
A few turtles
PRIMATES
3 Yucatan black howler monkeys
30-40 Spider monkeys in various stages of rehabiliation
CATS:
5 margays
1 jaguarundi
3 ocelots
1 jaguar
OTHER MAMMALS:
1 kinkaju
3 coatimundis
3 racoons
3 tayras
5 wild pigs
4 white tailed deer

For those of you who don't know what some of thoses are - don't worry, I didn't either. Over the past 2 weeks I have been working with virtually all of these animals excep tthe Macaws and the large cats (jaguar and ocelots), so I'll show you photos when I remember to bring my memory stick (oops).

ARCAS works to rehabiliate animals for their release into the wild, which is a 3 stage process. Initially, the animals need to be physically and medically rehabiliated and this occurs in quarantine, where almost all of the volunteer work takes place. The third stage of rehabilitation is the hardest, and that is behavioural rehab.

The typical ARCAS day starts at 7am, when all the animals in quarantine are fed and watered. This happens again at 11am and 2pm, and the juvenile animals and nocturnal animals also get fed at 5pm. Over that past 2 weeks I have been looking after alomst all the cages possible - racoons, juvenile spider monkeys (and the cute baby), howler monkeys, margays, lots of different birds, wild pigs and now coatimundis. Normally volunteers are not allowed in with mature spider monkeys - they can be very aggressive - or tayras, ocelots or coatimundis. As an exception I am looking after the coatis now - I like to think because of my experience, but more probably because of my size! You have to be pretty handy with a broom to avoid some nice sharp teeth being sunk into your leg.

In addition to the usual feeding and cleaning, I'm also helping with the veterinary cases. At the moment that is limited to a toucan with a broken leg, and watching juvenile parrot autopies (more than 80% die in captivity before reaching maturity). I am also unofficial guardian of the baby spider monkey, keeping an eye on it's weight, growth and diet. And last week, when both normal staff vets were absent, one of the wild pigs became very sick, which was a challenge for me. Despite my proclamations of doom and limited drugs, the pig is now happy and healthy again - not bad considering it's body temperature was 4 degrees below normal and it was very shocked.

So, anyway, next week I'll put some pictures on ("hooray", I hear you cry!) and will try and give a brief overview of the rehab process for the different types of animals here. I'll also let you know how it's going in my attempt to wangle a place on a trip to release a group of spider monkeys in probably the most remote area of Guatemala - Parque Nacional Rio Azul. As for now, the temperature outside is 90F, it's raining and I'm going to get a beer.

At ARCAS

On Monday morning I packed my bags and tried, unsuccessfully, to retrieve my washing from a laundry before heading out to ARCAS. On my way out the hostel an American called Wendy came running after me - she wanted to go as well. we walked across to the pier where the boat left from and sat down to wait.

ARCAS is probably the biggest reason I chose to come to Central America. Founded in 1989, it is an NGO that rescues and rehabilitates wildlife in Guatemala. It works closely with it's counterpart in the Guatemalan government, CONAP, and relies entirely on donations to fund it. At present ARCAS has two sites - a rescue and rehab facility just outside of Flores, and a turtle hatchery on the Pacific coast of Guatemala near Monterrico. There is also an office in Guatemala City and an extensive high-school level educational programme.

I had been in contact with ARCAS before I left, primarily to find out if I would be able to do veterinary work there on a daily basis. On the promise that I could, I decided to spend up to a cople of months there, depending on what their definition of "regular veterinary work" was.

ARCAS at the moment is home to some 500-600 mammals and birds, a few of which are below. I'll expand more in further posts!