I’ve now spent 6 weeks here at KSTR bonding with the workers and becoming an important part of the team. I believe I previously mentioned that Sam and Barb are the backbones of the clinic. Well Barb has decided to retire from working at the clinic full time. She’s worked wry hard for quite some time so it’s not much of a shock to any of us. However this means that the work she was doing falls onto the rest of us. So I’ve been waking up earlier, at 6am, and arriving at the clinic by 7 to feed the coatis, take the birds out, throw out the old owl food, clean up the remaining cages and start the laundry. It’s been rather tiring to say the least but I know everything I do helps keep the clinic operating smoothly. We have a new baby kinkajou as of yesterday, and her name is Hillary. The name Hillary was chosen because the kinkajous scientific name is Potus flavus, and we figure Hillary Clinton is going to be the first female President of the United States (POTUS). I’ve had many fun adventures here at KSTR and as my time is coming to an end all I can hope for is that I can see some more of the animals released. As of today we’ve had the howler monkey for 1 month. She’s been doing so well and she was moved out to a rehabilitation cage today. The burns are nearly all healed, and if she puts on some more weight and builds some more muscle mass we may be able to release her the day before I leave! That would be incredible. The owls I’ve been working with are also doing quite well, and they’re set to be moved into a rehabilitation cage tomorrow or Friday. Then once they reach their ideal adult weight and prove that they can fly then they’ll be able to be released as well! I may even get to see one released before I leave. I haven’t posted any pictures as my phone doesn’t allow me to email pictures. But if anyone reading this wants to see pictures of everything we’ve been doing here you can follow the FaceBook page “Primatography”. It’s been a great six weeks and I’m excited to see what these final two have in store.
-Jared