Bolivia 13 – Jaguars, Pumas and Bears! Oh My!

Did you know Jayne is a modern day “Goldilocks” except it was four bears she was looking after? She couldn’t quite believe what they had for breakfast, porridge with raisins! They were eating better than us!
I spent two days with Bears and Big Cats too and yes, the bears have quite a varied diet which sometimes includes porridge and a protein shake and in the case of the blind one coconut milk!

Jorge is the keeper for this area and on my days Alex was also present. The Bears are Andean or Spectacle Bears.  Two females in one enclosure then one male in another and the blind one I mentioned before in a smaller enclosure!
They are fed separately using guillotine gates. This also allows the keepers ( including me) to place the food or clean up. They have big wooded enclosures with ponds.

When I say big cats, I also mean wild cats as they have Margays, Ocelots and Mountain Cats. There are several Jaguars including Lala the one in the photograph at the beginning of our stay. She is playful with to people and on our first day Jayne got a startled while lining up a photo. Lala pounced at her, hit the wire and causing Jayne to fall back. Within days Jayne got to stroke her (through the wire of course) and described her as all muscle.
There are Pumas here too although they are shy. The funniest thing was hiding thier meat in a cardboard box, the female loved it, it was a great game for her, but the male wouldn’t eat it so we had to go back and unpack it for him!

When I was there we did a deep clean of the feeding stations and ponds. They have eggs often and these are so hard to clean up!
It makes me sad to think someone wanted these animals as pets or had killed the adults for fur (sometimes teeth) leaving their kittens without the skills to live wild.
The small cats really seem to adore Jorge but he is wary of them and careful around them!

We then had to move one Ocelot to a bigger enclosure and that was an interesting operation with a giant cat basket and a piece of chicken.

The cats get meat which has been in a freezer and so it has to have taurine added (because it’s degraded when frozen) and for the young Margay above a colostrum additive.

I was there when they did an enrichment exercise, making it more interesting for the cats to get their food.

So this is my last entry about Senda Verde and I will just write about a few incidentals.

One day I assisted in cleaning the Caymen ponds (he has two and they are deep). The Caymen Philip was lured out into another cage.  

When we set to work the Capybara ‘Capitan’ and one tame deer were allowed to come in and wallow. Here I saw my first native Tarantula walking on water!  Everyone was a bit freaked out! Until Ruben caught it and threw it to the squirrel monkeys who went berserk trying to catch and eat it!

Of the domestic animals Jayne and I had to look after an old cat who lived near our hut. She was no bother and slept most of the time. We also had to walk Ralph one of the dogs a couple of times each, he was big, old and gentle and didn’t really want to walk too far.

One one occasion returning from our walk to where Ralph lives near the Tapir enclosure, the Tapir came to say hello…..or so I thought! Suddenly something wet landed on the side of Ralph, the back of my trousers and my shirt. ApTapi the Tapir had sprayed us! It stank! Who knew that’s what they did! It explained why sometimes in our hut there was a strong smell from outside!

The next day in cleaner clothes I walked Ralph and checked for the Tapir, all clear! We came back and there was no Tapir. Wary now I put Ralph back at his accommodation and then put his lead away and I turned to open the gate. Suddenly I was pinned against the gate by Ralph trying to hump my leg! I had to call for help! Luckily one of the women was near and managed to get him off me. Animal magnetism has a whole different meaning now! Yuk!

I wanted to put this picture in and to explain it! This chrysalis belongs to a Monarch Butterfly.

Alejandra one of the team explained to be it is called a Monarch because of the gold coronette on the chrysalis. This is not quite true but a much lovelier reason than to name this particular species after William the third of England (Prince of Orange). Alejandra also showed me photos of a silver chrysalis and I would have loved to have seen that one, maybe next time.

Our time at Senda Verde has ended. I enjoyed the experience so much! It was tiring and dirty work but the staff here are so amazing and dedicated! I would very much like to come back for longer and to visit the re wilding sites! I would most definitely recommend this place to anyone wanting to volunteer, it was well run and has been here for 20 years.

On the last night at dinner Juan Paulo told Jane ” don’t leave Debbie behind like you did Ponchita!” Hahaha!

Next…. The Pampas