Greetings from Guatemala where we are still recovering from tropical storms Eta and Iota which did a lot of damage to the eastern part of the country. We also continue to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic. The rate of infections has dropped and the government has lifted most of the restrictions on travel, but masks are still mandatory, and we are all nervously waiting for a second wave with the holidays.
We are finishing up the sea turtle nesting season and have over 4000 eggs buried in the Hawaii Hatchery. That is a low number for us, but the beaches were closed for much of July and August, and we have not received any volunteers or interns to help us with egg collection and data gathering.
Despite not having any volunteers, we continue to receive and treat rescued wild animals. The wild animals of Guatemala and the poachers and traffickers that prey on them don’t pay attention to pandemics. So far in 2020, we have received over 86 animals at our rescue centers in Peten, Guatemala City and Hawaii.
The 28th of August we carried out an animal release in the Yaxha Nakum Naranjo - National Park in Peten. Among the animals released:
Our many thanks to the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) and the Humane Society International for their support with this release.
The pandemic has been difficult for all of us, but it has been especially difficult for Fernando, Alejandro, Anna and the rest of the team of the rescue center in Peten who, without the help of volunteers and interns, have been working long hours to keep the 500+ animals at the center healthy and on the road to rehabilitation. Your generous donation have helped us keep the rescue center running by purchasing food and veterinary medicines for the animals. THANKS!
The red-lored amazon (Amazona autumnalis) is one of the most-frequently trafficked animals in Guatemala. They can live up to 80 years, so, in addition to being illegal, keeping them as pets is a life-long commitment.
These two parrots were recently donated to ARCAS by an elderly couple who, after 30 years, found they were no longer able to care for them. In addition to being really loud, they can inflict serious bites.
DON'T BUY WILD ANIMALS AS PETS!!!
We have also recently published several important papers on the sea turtles and parrots of Guatemala which you can find on our publications page: https://arcasguatemala.org/who-we-are/arcas-publications/
THE NEXT SIX MONTHS ARE CRITICAL for the survival of ARCAS and Guatemalan wildlife.
We are happy to hear that a Covid vaccine is on the way, but it will probably not be readily available until next spring. Although we are opening to the public in December, our volunteer and intern programs will probably not begin recuperating until mid-2021, and most of our institutional donors have put their conservation programs on hold due to the economic crisis.
Meanwhile, we continue receiving orphaned animals rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and are finishing up our sea turtle conservation season at the Hawaii Park.
Please help us make it through the next 6 months by making a donation this GivingTuesday (December 1st) to https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/support-wildlife-rescue-in-guatemala/ Donations up to $2500 will be matched by GlobalGiving, though the % match will be determined depending on our ranking at the end of the day.
Help ARCAS and the wildlife it protects make it through the next months!!!
Links:
Greetings from Guatemala where the Coronavirus pandemic continues, though it seems to be “flattening” out. The government is doing fairly well in containing the virus and currently we have 41,135 cases with 1,573 fatalities. Masks are mandatory, and unessential travel and large gatherings are prohibited. People are getting sick of the lockdown and the economy is not doing well, but most people realize that this is necessary to beat the virus. Nonetheless, it’s disturbing to see single mothers with children waving white flags on the sides of the roads, asking for food. In such an environment, it makes ARCAS’s work saving the wildlife of Guatemala even more challenging than usual.
The wildlife of Guatemala and the poachers and traffickers that prey on them don’t pay attention to pandemics, and we continue to receive a steady stream of confiscated animals in Peten, Guatemala City and at our project in Hawaii. During this first half of 2020, we have received over 200 confiscated wild animals. I attach some fotos of the animals and their stores.
The pandemic has been difficult for all of us, but it has been especially difficult for Fernando, Alejandro, Anna and the rest of the staff of the rescue center in Peten who, without the help of volunteers and interns, have been working long hours to keep the 500+ animals at the center healthy and on the road to rehabilitation and release. Your generous donation has helped us keep the rescue center running by purchasing food and veterinary medicines for the animals.
On July 10th we initiated out sea turtle conservation season at the Hawaii Park, and Sofia, Mynor and the rest of the staff there is busy burying eggs in the hatcheries. Despite having no volunteers, and a reduced budget, and despite the lockdown, we are hoping that we can beat last year’s record of number of eggs rescued and incubated at the Hawaii Hatchery.
Our volunteer and vet training courses remain closed and most of our institutional donors have postponed planned giving. We are in crisis mode, looking for alternative sources of income to pay staff and feed animals. We have been focusing our efforts on on-line fundraising, especially GlobalGiving, and this has helped to fill in some of the gaps. In addition to donating directly to our projects, GlobalGiving allows our supporters and ex-volunteers to create their own fundraising pages to invite their networks to support ARCAS’s wildlife conservation efforts, so if you can help in this way, let us know. Celebrate your birthday, run a race, or start an employee competition — there are many ways you can help us through this crisis!
Now that we are a 501c3 non-profit organization in the US, we have joined AmazonSmile. If you could help us by choosing ARCAS as your charity, we would appreciate it. Same products, same prices, same service. AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to ARCAS at no extra cost to you.
Also, you can help by becoming an ARCAS monthly donor. You can do this via GlobalGiving, or through our Paypal account. Recurring donors – even for small donations – are especially helpful as these are resources that we can count on from month-to-month to help us continue our work.
Thanks very much for your support for our wildlife conservation activities in Guatemala, especially in these times of crisis. Your donation helps us continue our efforts to save the wild ones of the earth. Please let me know if you have any questions, and please come and visit us (when the pandemic is over of course).
Links:
Greetings from Guatemala. I hope all is well for you in these crazy times. Like everyone else in the world, we are feeling the effects of the Corona virus pandemic. Guatemala has 6 confirmed cases and has closed its borders and is not allowing entry of airline passengers from China, Europe, Iran, the US and Canada, among others. It has also cancelled schools and Easter processions, and gatherings larger than 100 people.
ARCAS relies heavily on its paid volunteer and vet training courses to cover its day-to-day operating costs, and due to the outbreak and restrictions on international travel, these volunteers and students have cancelled for the upcoming months. We have entered crisis mode and have launched an emergency campaign on GlobalGiving to raise funds to help cover the costs of food and medicine for the animals we have in our care in Peten, Hawaii and at the San Lucas central office, as well as to support the salaries of our animal keepers. Link: http://goto.gg/45719 If you could share this link with friends, family and potential donors, we'd appreciate it. We now have 501(3)(C) status in the US, so let us know if you need a copy of our IRS letter for tax purposes. If they want to become monthly donors, they can use this account as the Corona account is just temporary. Like everyone else in the world, we are hoping that things blow over in the next few months, but we are in dire straits now trying to care for the 500+ animals we have under our care.
Although the Corona virus is creating economic havoc around the world, it might also help us in our fight against animal trafficking. A wildlife market in Wuhan, China has been identified as a source of the COVID 19 virus where the virus may have been hosted by pangolins, bats or snakes before jumping over to people. The Chinese government has imposed a ban on wildlife trade and consumption, though wildlife in medicine and research is still permitted. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/science/coronavirus-pangolin-wildlife-ban-china.html Hopefully this will convince people that owning and consuming wildlife is not only wrong, but bad for your health.
On a brighter note, on 19th of February, we released 15 spider monkeys (Ateles geoffoyi) in the northern section of the Yaxha Nakum Naranjo National Park in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
These animals were rescued from illegal trafficking, rehabilitated under strict health and behavior protocols in our rescue center, and are now free to give life to the forest. They have been equipped with VHF collars to track them and assess their adaptation to the environment. Our monitoring team is in the forest observing and learning from these animals in their new life in the wild.
Also, after five years of trying, we finally succeeded in reproducing a pair of yellow-naped amazons at the Hawaii Park! They are a species notoriously difficult to breed so we're really happy. We hope to use the offspring from this captive breeding program to replenish local populations of the yellow-naped parrot depleted from poaching. Because of their advanced ability to imitate the human voice and other sounds, these parrots are highly sought-after on the illegal pet trade, and according to estimates by the COLORES project, less than 500 of these parrots remain in the wild.
Thanks very much for your support for our wildlife conservation activities in Guatemala, especially in these times of crisis. Your donation helps us continue our efforts to save the wild ones of the earth. Please let me know if you have an questions, and please come and visit us (when this Corona business is over of course).
Links:
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