Construction

When we weren’t working directly on the animals’ areas, we did quite a bit of construction. The animals used to be in old quarantine, which had even tinier rotting wooden cages and room for very few creatures. We used it at times for one reason or another, such as when the tapir escaped and was temporarily housed in the large aviary that had held one macaw who understandably didn’t want to share her house with this huge creature (story later). New quarantine had been initiated a few months before with larger, sturdier metal enclosures that were easier to clean and could be enlarged. The pigs and tortoises had larger dirt areas in which to roam, and we had three birds and two monkeys in an adjacent enclosed area, each in their own (far too small) cage. Our first project when I arrived was to repair one of the aviaries at main camp so that we could move Chichi Richi (our macaw displaced by the tapir) there – she was only in quarantine because they had nowhere else for her to go. Yeah, the whole idea behind quarantine there is pretty contradictory! I was initially very unsure in my use of wire cutters, pliers, and construction with fencing material in general, but I soon was adept in patching up the holes around the old aviary. My hands certainly didn’t appreciate my gripping the tools as I cut out patches and twisted wires in ways that they didn’t want to move., and it was hard to work for long periods reaching upwards, sometimes standing at the top of a shaky ladder. It seemed like we would never finish, as we found hole after hole on the high roof, rusty bits in much of the old wiring that needed to be replaced, and parts where the fencing wasn’t secured to the ground. We eventually had to settle leaving some small holes and hope that people would continue to keep an eye on them. After securing the door with latches and more wiring, we finally were done with the construction bit and passed on the job to the people on house animals to put up perches and get the aviary ready for its new inhabitant.
Our next construction job was the chancho pen. In new quarantine, we just had two pig areas, and we got a new pig at the beginning of my stay who was placed in the same enclosure as Duncan. They did not get along at all, so we moved Duncan temporarily to old quarantine. The new pig only needed to be quarantine for a week since he had previously done a full quarantine period at the other park, but the chancho pen at main camp had lots of escape holes. It was up to us to fill in the holes and secure the pen so that poor little Duncan could get this home back. Having no idea what we were doing aside from being told to dig trenches and fill them in with cement, one of the other volunteers and I began this task one afternoon. We dug as far as the hard earth would allow us in the three main stretches where the fence wasn’t secured, and collected rocks that would surround these areas when we poured in the cement. It was then time to experiment with the cement, minus any equipment. Three portions of sand, one portion of cement, and water to desired consistency, we were told. We hunted down a bag of cement and filled a wheelbarrow with sand from the side of the road. Found a cracked tub that would work to mix our concoction, filled a bucket with water, and trowel in hand, we hauled our goodies along the bumpy path to the chancho pen. We started with a really small batch of cement since we had no idea how it would work – our first bit was kind of dry, but turned nice and cement0like when we added some more water. By evening, we had filled in our smallest hole with a combination of our mixture and heavy rocks cemented along the side. The next morning, our work from the day before looked like it was solidifying well, so we made a nice big batch with nine shovels of sand and three shovels of cement. Mix, mix, mix it around in our cracked little tub that was a bit too small for the task, attempted to get a nice blend of colors rather than distinct streaks and clumps of grey and brown. One of us sloshed in a good amount of water while the other mixed it around, the stirring getting easier as our gigantic cake turned into batter. We dumped the tub into our holes, spreading it around and making the surfaces even with the trowel as our spatula, pressing rocks into the sides and filling in the sides so everything would be glued together. No idea why, but the gate had been locked and the walk to get wire cutters to break in was farther than we wanted to venture, so one of us would hop over the barbed wire fence to even things out from the inside of the pen. Didn’t get pricked by the fence or stuck at all there, though I did brush against a very spiny tree on as I hopped over one side of the pen, though thankfully all it attacked was my jacket. After making a latch on the door that could actually be opened by humans, we gave the area a few days to dry.
Then it was time to move our pig from quarantine world into the general population. He would be by himself, but shared a wall with the other four chanchos and was supposed to be moved in with them after an adjustment period, though that has yet to happen. Quarantine is quite a walk from the chancho pen and we had already discovered when the other chanchos escaped how hard it was to herd them back, so doing a food bribery walk or using a leash weren’t options. We found an appropriate sized but very heavy cage as well as some delicious bribery and slowly carried the awkward contraption over to collect the chancho we had deemed Big Pig aka Bacon, but the organization later officially named Romantico. We were unsure how willing he would be to enter the cage, but pigs are pigs! At first he reached his snout in, grabbed a treat we had dropped, and ran away with it. But we got smarter and held a banana inside one end of the cage so that he had to actually take it from us rather than grab it from the ground. He tried to reach for it and back away, but as soon as he stepped part way into the cage, I shoved the big guy from behind and slid the door shut. Poor thing, but it was better for him to be over at main camp, where he where he would enjoy all of the scraps and leftovers from our meals rather than the boring healthy fruits and vegetables that he got in quarantine. Many of the chanchos are very vocal so we were afraid he would be screaming on the entire journey to his new home, but he didn’t make a peep. No scrambling in circles, no panicking – clearly not comfortable with the bumpy ride and strange situation, but he didn’t seem too terribly stressed. We borrowed a guy who was on construction to help us carry the big, and he had a much easier time lifting his side of the cage than we did. When we finally arrived at his new home, I opened up the door, but he just stood there puzzled, probably too much in shock to know that he was free to roam. I tipped the cage a little bit to get his attention and it suddenly clicked in his head and out he popped to explore his surroundings and chat with his new neighbors, who he seemed to get along with quite nicely.
Chancho transferred out of quarantine, our next project was to build another cage in new quarantine using the metal frame. All put together, they look quite simple, but it was actually quite the task. First came the flooring, for which we used the semi-flexible diamond fencing. With a ragged old tape measure that started at 3 meters, we cut out the appropriately sized piece and secured it to the frame. To get the wire that we used to secure everything, we had to cut the ends of a wire from the role of fencing and twist until it was free. Then one person held each end with pliers and backed away from each other to straighten out the series of bends. We discovered later that it was much easier to have one person hold onto the roll of fencing and the other simply yank out the last wire on the role, the force of the yank straightening the wire in the process. We measured and cut out all the other pieces for the cage – the large pieces and really difficult to cut out because we had a small space in which to unroll the very heavy fencing that kept poking us and trying to roll itself back up again. To make the pieces easier to attach, we tipped the cage onto its side so everything was a little bit lower, though tipping it was difficult because we were in the confines of a fenced area with a roof that the frame repeatedly got caught on and we needed to dislodge it with a stick. Even standing on a log, I was too short to do much of the higher parts, though did have to stand on my toes at time to keep the fencing raised high enough while the only guy amongst us secured the higher pieces. The work got harder as got closer to finishing because we needed to work the wires around more fencing without having the freedom of open space. Triangle pieces, various rectangles, correct lining up of fencing to fit on the door without leaving any stray sharp edges that might poke the cage’s inhabitant. It took several days of work, but was really nice to get finished. It was to either be a spare cage if another animal came or to be converted into a double for Titi, the little monkey in a single cage who would probably be there forever.
On my last day of work,, I asked the vet if any animals would be arriving soon and he said no, so I started the process of connecting the cage to Titi’s. I made a box plenty large enough for her to pass through and connected it to the side of the new empty cage. Pushed the cage close enough to Titi’s so that the edges of my box slid against the side of her cage, and then connected the box to her cage as well. It was really hard to push the wire around so many different corners and through the right holes, so I ended up going into Titi’s house to push the wires to the outside, and then was able to twist them into the right positions and tighten them as I stood in the narrow passageway. I cut a hole in the wall of the new cage so that she would be able to pass through the box into the second room, but didn’t have time to go any further. Hopefully people will finish the job soon by decorating the new cage with branches, platforms, and vegetation, and then open up the hole on her end so that she can pass through and have more space. She’s very shy and not very active, but it still wasn’t fair for her to have that little space, especially for an indefinite amount of time.
The other project of my last few days was clearing out the aviary that Herbie (tapir) had destroyed during his temporary stay. It had been this amazing large enclosure with tons of live vegetation, perches and branches all around, very green and jungly. But during his time in the enclosure, Herbie mowed down the entire place, knocking over all the trees and munching on them, eating all of the plants, leaving a massive pile of poop in one corner. It wasn’t Herbie’s fault at all and at least he was happy with tons of goodies to eat, but it was pretty sad to watch the enclosure be destroyed day by day until it was just a desert scattered with dead plant remains. When he left, we cleared out the area with the intention to remake the aviary (though not nearly as nice as it had been with live plants). Buried all the poop because it was way too much to lug out, and spent several mornings carrying bag after bag of debris over to a compost pile. Raking, scooping, stuffing everything into sacks, using machetes to chop up the remains of all the dead pieces. It was a really exhausting task, but was nice when the area was swept clean and all that remained were the few live plants and a smooth dirt ground. Unfortunately got the verdict from the vets that we couldn’t move any of our birds to this area when it had been turned back into an aviary – because they were in quarantine, they wanted them in the tiny cages so that they could be observed more closely. I argued with this quite a bit but they were set on their opinion. Poor JR the toucan has almost no space to hop around, and Captain the macaw is desperate to get into a large area. If the animals were actually sick or being observed more closely, this would make more sense, but there is really no monitoring done aside from what I established with the logging. So the clearing out of the cage ended up being pretty futile because at this point no one is even going in that nice big area, but hopefully it will come to some use soon.
My hands are pretty hideous from my time at the park - monkey nibbles, mosquito and spider bites that I’m awful at not scratching, holes in my fingers from which I’ve removed endless thorns and spines, scratches from wires, and blisters from pliers.
I still have tons and tons to write about my time there, and will catch up bit by bit as I’m going along. Right now we’re in Rurrenabaque, soon to embark on a three day pampas tour and then a three day jungle tour with an indigenous guide.