Rescue and Return

On Sunday morning, Armando found an injured sloth while out walking in the forest below the University for Peace.  It was a Two-Toed Sloth, Perezoso in Spanish, (Choloepus hoffmanni) and it was slumped at the base of a tree nursing a broken front arm.  Armando realized that it would die a slow, miserable death if he could not find help immediately.  So he called Yaneth, who called me; then I called Alice, a friend of Rodolfo Vargas Leiton, Director of the Refugio Herpetologico de Costa Rica, who then called him.  Rodolfo and the good people at the Refugio rescue, cure and release, if possible, all the wild animals brought to them, only keeping those that would not survive in the wild in a beautiful, oasis-like setting in Santa Ana.  There, visitors can interact closely with cute capuchin and squirrel monkeys; an ocelot; lots of rescued and permanently injured tropical birds, especially parrots and macaws; and many reptiles and amphibians that private owners, overwhelmed by their crocodile in the bathtub, release over to  Rodolfo.  A visit to the Refugio is a wonderful experience for the whole family.  The staff and helpers there give  great tours, telling the rescue stories of the animals, and many of the creatures are very tame and will interact with children.  That’s one reason that they can’t return to the wild.  They are too used to human creature comforts…

Anyway, in less than thirty minutes, Alice and Rodolfo raced to the scene, and Armando helped them carry the injured sloth back to the car and to safety.  Armando said that the sloth was in very good health apart from the injury, and actually appeared grateful to the humans for helping him – he seemed to sense that the humans meant him no harm.  Rodolfo and Alice then transported the sloth back to the Refugio.  Many, many thanks to Rodolfo and Alice, and also to Armando, for the rescue of this gentle forest creature.

During my visit to the Refugio yesterday, I watched vets operating on a hawk with an infected claw.  I also took the picture above of the injured sloth, who awaits surgery by a specialist on Thursday.  He has a compound fracture which will need to be held together with a titanium plate in order to secure the bone.  The good news, however, is that, with the plate in place, he should make a complete recovery.  Coincidentally, I also have a titanium plate screwed to my clavicle, after I broke it a few years ago.  It sometimes bothers me but the bone is stronger with it in.  And, like me, the sloth will have to get used to his plate when Rodolfo and Alice release him back into the forest some weeks from now, after he completely recovers.

Alice wrote to me about his current condition and the need for donations: “We really need funds to pay the vet and the after surgery medicines! We already got out the voice with our visitors at the refuge and have already $200 for him.  We need $600 to pay $350 to the vet and $250 for his special diet and the medicines."

Please help us save this sloth, by going to the secure site of www.refugioherpetologico.com, where you can make a donation at the Gift Shop tab - any amount, large or small, would be so much appreciated.  You can visit El Refugio Herpetologico in Santa Ana, Tuesday through Sunday 9am - 4pm, located on the old road to Santa Ana, Alto de las Palomas, tel: 2282-4614.
Take a look at this huge higueron that collapsed across the road to the Finca on Monday afternoon.  Half of the massive tree keeled over last rainy season, and then on Monday - the day before I arrived - the other half collapsed, blocking the road out to Reserva El Tigre!  However, all the neighborhood guys worked together most of Tuesday to clear just enough of a path so that I could get home from the airport.  Thank you Jose, Jorge, Armando, Hugo and everybody else who helped me arrive home.  I took these pictures on Wednesday, when they were still trying to clear a better path. 

Jose really is amazing with a chainsaw – not many could successfully tackle a tree of that size.  Jose is also amazing playing football (soccer).  You can see YouTube footage of Jose and his team winning the championship game of their Division somewhere outside Puriscal a few weeks back.

 This picture is of Jose, Danny and the new Mariola bees’ nest located just under the carport near his house.  Jose wears many hats – gardener, cowboy, mountain biker, mechanic, wild-life manager, animal technician, and now, bee-keeper.  ‘Problemitas’ like a downed tree become more like challenges and opportunities here at the farm.  When the higueron tree came down, Jose and Armando rescued a bee hive filled with delicious honey of the very best kind – from the tiny Mariola stingless honey bee – Tetragonisca angustula.  This is a highly prized bee because the honey has so many medicinal and nutritional benefits.  Can you imagine all the plants they get to pollinate around here?  Jose carefully removed the intact part of the nest within the branch (at night while the bees slept) and relocated the entire thing, together with sleeping bees, to a nicely prepared new home in a wooden box for them that he had previously fabricated.   These sweet, tiny honey bees never sting, pester or buzz into your hair!  After three days relocated, the Mariola bees have begun transporting material from their old nest in the fallen tree back to the new wooden box, where they are busy constructing and settling into their new home; we are hoping that the queen does well and goes back to laying eggs after that shocking event and subsequent relocation.  Armando is well trained in apiculture from a previous experience, and the fallen tree gave us a great opportunity to begin this new adventure; and Jose discovered how to make the wooden box from an internet site at the University of Costa Rica…

 Have you ever eaten honey straight out of the hive?  There is nothing like it.  That Mariola honey was so good that I just ate it all – all that they gave me from the nest - chewing it down to the wax to absorb it all.  I was so fully sated that I actually walked away from a big breakfast of fruit from the garden – granadillas, mangas and papaya, toast, coffee and our very own orange sweet marmalade.  I walked away from it all, needing nothing else after consuming that incredible honey.  Now I so better understand Winnie the Pooh!

Armando also rescued this Rhipsalis from the fallen tree.  An epiphytic cactus, it would not have survived long where it was, but now is thriving on nearby Guitite and Madero Negro trees.   The fallen higueron, with its soft wood, will remain where it is, returning to the earth and providing shelter for many species.  The rain will soon break it all down.

Take a look at this Green Iguana that Armando Jose photographed just below the house.  A pair of them, each measuring nearly two meters long, has taken up residence in a tree nearby, and occasionally they go swimming in the pool…    Doesn’t this fellow look ancient – like a dinosaur?  Adult iguanas are very fast and will zip up a tree in a flash if they sense danger.  As you may recall if you are an avid reader of this blog, Jose relocated a huge Green Iguana some months ago when he wandered up to the house as if he owned the place.  I was concerned that he would get into the hen house so asked Jose to relocate him to the Cedrela tree.  Well, it turns out that, although juvenile Green Iguanas are carnivorous, adults prefer to eat plants.  Thus, they are unlikely to attack the hen house or compete with cats for prey.  These Iguanas are big – and no longer green – so the cats avoid them, and the dogs are now ignoring them, after some initial curiosity.  We (the humans) tolerate them, as long as they stay away from the hen house.  They are like the monkeys, sloths and other wild animals we see just outside – we observe them but don’t interact with them or feed them.

We do, however, keep our cats and dogs well-fed.  The cats are mostly out at the stables, where they keep the snakes and rodents at bay.  And, although people say that cats cause damage to the ecology hunting birds and other prey, we have observed that our well-fed cats are too lazy to hunt, or at worst, they are only occasional opportunistic hunters.  In fact, both our cats and dogs are scared of the forest, where bigger predators lurk, and stay close to the house or stables most of the time.  Fea La Gata never hunted.  In fact, Fea had an odd assortment of bed-fellows – small green frogs or a favorite tarantula often shared her sleeping box!

Here is a shot of Coquetta La Vaca and her calf, Alejandra, born just moments before, on May 25^th.  The guys had a busy weekend.  Armando and Jose needed to help Coquetta give birth to Alejandra La Vaquita – who was delivered hind-feet first.  Happily, we did not need to call a vet, and Armando injected Coquetta with medications to eject the afterbirth, prevent infection and relieve pain.  And I can now proudly announce that both mother and calf are doing very well indeed.  But Alejandra sure took her sweet time making an appearance - our previous calves Negrito and Little Gerry were both born on Gerry’s birthday in March, but Alejandra didn’t appear until Jose’s birthday weekend.  We are all thrilled.  And now that she is all cleaned up and looking well, we can see that Alejandra la Vaquita will be even more beautiful than her mother, Coquetta.  And best of all, we will soon eat home-made yoghurt and cheese once again after so long…

Here’s a shot of an Africanised bee (Apis mellifera) pollinating an Una de Gato vine, a species of Mimosa vine in the Fabaceae family.  Africanised bees are perfectly safe to photograph while busy pollinating flowers - just stay away from their hives!

I have written about Hymenoptera before, as I find these winged creatures utterly fascinating to observe, whether parasitic, predatory or, as in our case here, phytophages (plant eating).  Bees (Apidae) are likewise phytophages, and amazingly there are some 650 species of them here in Costa Rica.   And as we observe the bees visiting flowering plants, we can more fully appreciate the circle that takes places in the ecosystem, connecting animals with plants in a beneficial manner.  Every species has a role - even humans.

Here’s a shot of Palicourea guianensis now in bloom.  This is a beautiful native shrub and very ornamental for the garden.  You never need to water this in the dry season.  Butterflies are also currently visiting flowering Stachytarpheta, Lantana, Mimosas and many other plants that begin blooming at the start of the rainy season.  If you want to see butterflies, high season here is June - August when so much shrubbery is in bloom. 

Despite my chaotic welcome back, it’s so good to return home to the forest.  I drink freshly squeezed orange juice and feast on fruits that the guys bring in from the garden – granadillas, mangas, bananas, pitangas, moras, mimbro, Guisaro (Psidium guineense), many types of citrus, and that’s just to start.  Armando also brings avocados, herbs and greens for salads.  A few days ago, Jose brought me our very first cuttings of asparagus!  Hugo cut Chicasquil leaves, and Dona Rosa made us all a delicious picadillo with them.  We are all busy in the kitchen processing the garden abundance into assorted recipes, sauces and chutneys.

We have planted numerous fruit trees this month - citrus and peach trees (experiment), and also some hardwoods, particularly Cenizaro (Albizia saman).  We already have lots of the cream-colored Guayaquil (Albizia guachapele) and wanted to add the pink-flowering cousin.  There’s no greater pleasure than watching trees grow over the years.  The most hardy of all trees are those that seed themselves.  In that lucky case, all you have to do is select out in the garden.  Do you really want to weed that tiny plant that could be something rare and important?  We don’t weed so much as select out.  Armando is good at recognizing seedlings and what they will become.

Village News.  You can now put your recycling out every Monday in El Rodeo, for pick-up by Servicios Ecologicos from Ciudad Colon.  A meeting was recently held in the village to explain everything but only two men and a dog showed up.  Where was everybody?  Out at Reserva El Tigre, we have to recycle by necessity because we have no garbage pick-up of any kind.  We reuse, recycle and reject (don’t buy anything that might end in a landfill) and feel empowered by this lifestyle.  All kitchen waste goes to the chickens and turkeys, who give us delicious eggs in return.  It’s amazing how little true waste you produce by just becoming more conscious. 

The Museo Nacional has just published a book about the Zona Protectora of El Rodeo.  A meeting was also held about this important work, but this too was, sadly, sparsely attended.  Where is everybody?  This Brenesia publication is a must read for anyone enamored with this beautiful forest located so close to San Jose.  Go to the Museo Nacional website or just buy the book at the ticket office in San Jose.