releasing animals back into the wild

Hola, Buenos Dias a todos!

No, don’t worry, I am not going to write this report in Spanish.

It’s been a while again since my last update. The last month I didn’t have a lot of time to write, which means I at least didn’t get bored. But now it’s time to get you all updated about what’s been going on in December.

After 3 weeks of working at the Rescate visitor center, as I described in the previous blog, I moved to another part of the country where the rescued animals will be released if possible. Because Rescate eventually tries to release as much animals as possible back into the wild. A 5 hour drive brought me to the Nicoya peninsula, where Rescate has bought some forest area in a quite deserted place. Every two weeks a truck arrives there from the rescue center, bringing food and other supplies and often animals than can be released. Most animals that arrive there are yellow naped amazones and spider monkeys, but also turtles, great currasows and incidently others like possums. I was really looking forward to start volunteering there, and finally be able to release animals back into the wild.

Some animals like turtles and possums can be released directly into the forest when they arrive. Some only need a few days to acclimatise before they are released. The monkeys and most birds that arrive there though, first need to be kept in big cages for several weeks. There they can relax from the transportation and the probable stress while being in the rescue center. Also they need to get used to the new surrounding, type of food and especially, the other animals of their species that are in and around the cage. While they are in their cage, we monitor them to see how they behave and react on each other and on humans.

Many parrots have to learn to fly again after having been in a cage as a pet for many years. Also they have to learn vocalizing as a bird again in stead of imitating human sounds like songs or crying babies. Monkeys especially need to learn behaving amongst other monkeys in a group and more important not being close to humans any more. So during the monitoring we try to see which animals show more natural behaviour, can move around normally and thus have a serious chance of surviving once released.

During my stay we released several yellow naped parrots. Catching them from within the cage was an interesting activity. First we ‘chased’ them with a long pole so they would fly up and down the cage and get tired after a while. When they are tired the stop flying high up and end on the ground, where they are easier to catch. Easier does not mean easy. Once on the ground they defend themselves with trying to bite you and put their claws and nails on you. The claws are okay, but their beaks and incredibly sharp and strong, so we had to wear thick leather gloves and try to catch them from their neck so they can’t reach with their beak anymore. The first time I tried to catch one, I was afraid of hurting them, but soon I figured out that they are not that fragile and you actually need to hold them firmly otherwise they’ll still manage to bite you.

Luckily I never got biten seriously and soon enough learnt how to catch and hold them. Once held firmly, we did some measurements and then brought them outside the cage. There they are put on the fence, where some of them climb up slowly to be close to their peer inside the cage and need some time before they fly off. Others can’t wait to be free and fly away the moment they are released.

Our responsibility didn’t stop there. Since the forest area where the release takes place is not enormous and the managers still don’t know how much food can be found there in the wild, every morning we bring food into the feeders that are around the cages and in the forest and then observe which and how many of the animals come to feed on them. During the time I was there, we always saw several animals that were released recently or in the previous years but also unknown ones that have probably been born in the wild as offspring from the released animals. (When they started the project, there weren’t much wild animals left in the area). So the rewilding is really working out.

In fact, some animals got so succesful that they were starting to be annoying sometimes. On the birdfeeders there were often great currasows and crested guans hanging around, trying to get the food that was meant for the macaws and parrots. On the monkey feeders, there were often big groups of coati invading the whole area so the monkeys got scared away. During my stay here I started to get more annoyed by the coatis, although they still look cute.

After the 2 weeks I spent here, I really learned a lot about the complicated process of releasing animals that have been captured for a long time or never learn foraging from their parents.

By this time I had been in Costa Rica for 3,5 months and I gave myself a small holiday. I went to Bonaire and Curacoa for a week, mainly to do some diving and snorkeling, but also to see how old dutch colonies look like nowadays.

The flights there and back were a little exciting because the islands lay only 60km from Venezuela. Luckily no flights were bombed during these days so I survived.

The coast of both Islands is really beautiful and tropical and it was beautiful to see many fish and also some seaturtles while I was in the water. Even though the coral in many places looked quite depressive and desolated.

Apart from nature I also liked the laid back ambience and friendly Antillian people there. I never new which language to speak with them because the all speak some Dutch, English and Spanish but among themselves mostly speak Papiamento. And that’s the only one I can’t speak[e-1f61c]

I also didn’t realise these islands are very touristic. The central harbor of Willemstad received between 2 and 5 cruise ships daily and also many Dutch people go there for holidays, living or temporal jobs. And though they all come to enjoy the beauty of nature, most of them didn’t give me the impression of being really close to nature. I had a great holiday week there, but I am glad to be back in Costa Rica at my new project on the Osa Peninsula, where people really seem to care about our beautiful planet.

Next time I hope to tell you about this project here. I wish you all a great start of the new year and hope 2026 will be the year where people finally stop being capitalist and get attached to nature again. Salud!