Disclaimer: Because the animals in the KSTR sanctuary were in their enclosures and behind a few layers of mesh, photos were near impossible. While I took dozens, most were garbage, some were “ok”. Below though are the stories of the animals we met.
Boche, a macaw was taken from a local woman who only ever fed her on one side of her mouth making her beak grow crooked and malformed. KSTR preformed surgery on her with okay results. She can now feed herself and doesn’t seem to be in pain but she can’t use her beak as a third foot like other macaws do. She got out recently and was attacked by a dog that tore out her tail feathers. Boche couldn’t use her mouth to defend herself nor could she fly away. She is safe again though and her feathers are growing back. KSTR is looking for a companion for her as macaws get very attached to their owners in the absence of a mate.
Flick, a yellow throated toucan, was singing her heart out today. She came in with a broken clavicle which is often deadly for a bird. They had to clip her wing to save her. Lately a wild male has been seen flying around her enclosure. This afternoon Flick got out during the daily feeding. Apparently, she can fly just enough to escape out an open enclosure door. As of dinner time they had yet to get her back inside.
KSTF has three kinkajous. All three are blind (one was born without eyes) and were confiscated from illegal traders. Kinkajous are very small and forage through the trees. Darling while young, they are another example of cute infants that grow up to be terrible pets. They bite. If you do a google search for them though, unfortunately exotic pet traders pop right up.
The three marmosets here have an interesting story. There was a researcher who imported 30 or so from Brazil as they are not native to Costa Rica. When he was done with them, he sold them as pets. These three were given up by their owners. While healthy, they are too habituated to humans and would never survive on their own. Apparently, marmoset, native to the rainforests of Brazil, are trained as pickpockets in the Brazilian favelas. They love shinny things and are quite adept at stealing them and then making their way back to their owner for food.
And, of course, KSTR has two, two-toed sloths in the sanctuary. They were orphaned too early but were not new borns were not good candidates for being released back into the wild. We watched one of them make its way ever so slowly over to where a much younger sloth was swinging in a hammock. After a seemingly endless amount of time, the big guy crawled in beside the little one.
The nursery mostly houses newborn orphaned sloths who are raised for two years before taken to the Rehab Bootcamp. There are currently three sloths ready to be released. They are waiting for radio collars. The goal is to track these three to determine the success of their release. The general wisdom is that sloths released back into the wild don’t fare well. KSTR staff are hoping to prove that wisdom wrong. One of sloths’ main natural predators was the harpy eagle but there are no more harpy eagles in Costa Rica. Instead, it is now dogs, electrical wires, cars, and the pet trade that are their biggest threats.
We saw various parrots. It is interesting that the volunteers and staff are taught not to respond to the various words that the parrots learned to say as pets. They are trying to decondition them. Parrots vocalize because they were conditioned by their owners by being fed or paid attention to when they “talked”. You’ve seen the videos. One of them had quite a potty mouth in the beginning. The problem with keeping parrots is that they live a very long time and attach to their owners. If something happens to their owners or they don’t want the parrot any longer, it is very traumatizing for the bird. They have been known to pluck out all the feathers on their chests for example or rock continuously back and forth for hours.
The most heartbreaking are the monkeys. Darwin, a spider monkey, was confiscated from his owner who was keeping him in a very small cage. He is an adult but behaves like an adolescent. They believe he was probably abused but more, never knew other monkeys so he is “missing” many monkey behaviors. Mostly he is easily agitated and very aggressive. We had to walk by him without looking at him. Eye contact can agitate him. Even with just our presence he flew back and forth across his enclosure squawking loudly at us.
In the enclosure with him was a female with only one arm. She had been kept as a pet. She was then sold to a circus but something happened there where she lost an arm. Very timid and afraid, she came in lethargic, depressed and in pain. The staff worked hard to introduce her to Darwin. Luckily, Darwin accepted her and they are companions now. She is old though and the staff worry what might happen to Darwin when Lucy passes. Like most monkeys, spider monkeys live in communal groups.
A white faced capuchin had been found with a collar around his neck and a broken leash running across the highway. He came in timid as he was no doubt somebody’s pet and not treated well. What’s interesting is that capuchin males leave their family troupe when they reach adolescence and go join another troupe. There are three capuchins at the sanctuary. Recently an adolescent wild male has been showing up. They think he is trying to join the sanctuary group.
Capuchins are led by alpha males. If an approaching adolescent male adopts a submissive posture, the alpha male may allow him to stay. If the adolescent is aggressive, either the newcomer will be chased off or a fight will ensure until a winner emerges. New alpha males will often kill all the infant monkeys to bring the females into estrus in order to bred with them. A wild alpha male showed up the other day and bit a finger off one of the younger sanctuary female capuchins. She had her fingers through the wire.
And lastly there was a little squirrel monkey who either lost his mother or was taken from her too young. He sits and sucks his thumb. The gray-capped squirrel monkey was critically endangered a few years ago but they are making a comeback. Gentle souls, they have no hierarchy and instead live in family groups of up to 70 with no alpha males to boss anybody around. They are looking to other sanctuaries for some companions for him.
