Wildtracks Newsbrief
FEBRUARY, 2022
WILDTRACKS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
We have had many people asking how Wildtracks has been faring in this time of global pandemic - it has been inspiring and heart-warming working with such an amazing group of people - our fantastic Wildtracks Team! Evolving to meet the rehabilitation needs - outgoing international volunteers, incoming manatee calves, inspiring Belize youth volunteers it has been a roller coaster of emotions (highs and lows), gaining new friends and losing old ones, and working in a world that seems to have been turned upside down.
To be honest, it has also been exhausting, with only a quarter of the normal Wildtracks team on site during much of 2020 / 2021, concerns of where the fruit was going to come from when Belize shut down under a state of emergency, and the ever present concerns of financial sustainability …and you will have noticed that we haven’t had much spare time to post about life at Wildtracks on social media!!
Life, however, is returning to normal. As we enter 2022, our volunteer team is once again up to full strength and we are able to catch up on the release of howler monkey troops that had to be held back as a result of Belize's Covid-19 regulations. Four of our manatees are completing soft release, and the past two years without tourism boats on the waters coincides with the first time for many years that we don't have calves in intensive care.
THE HOWLER MONKEYS
Despite the national Covid-19 lockdown, we have still been admitting rescued and surrendered howler monkeys through the Forest Department.
Meet Dobby...he was rescued by a farmer in the Belize River Valley who saw him fall from a tree and found him lying unconscious on the ground. He has settled in very well, and is integrated with the Nursery Group, forming tight friendship with Maisie, the second youngest in the group.
Over the years, the ICU incubator has saved many small lives, contributing significantly to the high level of success in the care of new borns and critical care wildlife that come into the rehab centre. Many of these individuals are rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and arrive in critical condition. For howler monkeys, these delicate babies grow over two to three years of rehabilitation, developing into strong juveniles with tight troop bonds, ready for release into the wild. They learn to be howler monkeys, with the skills needed to survive. Two years after release, these howlers, once so small and fragile, will have their own young, in the forest, where these monkeys belong.
The howler monkey releases are part of an endangered species reintroduction programme with an exceptionally high success rate of 95% post-release survival through the first year, and first and second generation babies born in the wild in a flourishing new population at the release site in Fireburn. Achieving and maintaining very high survival rates through the rehabilitation process, often starting with critically ill infants from the illegal wildlife trade, requires a great deal of experience, incredible support from our volunteers, commitment – and the right equipment.
We would also like to introduce Etti - this is her at 3 days old, and reached that age thanks largely to our Brinsea Intensive Care Unit incubator! She’s an endangered Yucatan black howler monkey born here at the Wildtracks Primate Rehabilitation Centre in Belize. Born prematurely, Etti’s fists were tightly clenched and she was unable to hold on to her mother, despite her mother’s best efforts to support her. Etti had to be brought in for hand-rearing when she was just 22 hours old. Photo credit: Kyra Dixon
The Brinsea ICU is ideal for such babies – the precise temperature control and easy-to clean design provides the very controlled environment needed for such delicate animals. Etti had some prematurity-related health issues in her first days that cleared up well, but then developed pneumonia at three weeks old.
Weighing in at just 260 g and gasping for breath, Etti was certainly in a critical state – that’s where the input from our consulting vet, Dr. Philip De Shield, from Animal Medical Centre, and the Brinsea ICU incubator’s attachments for an oxygen line and nebulizer really came into their own, providing the intensive care conditions needed.
Etti pulled through and has now just celebrated her first birthday!
Inca arrived in the last quarter of 2021 - and spent the first 12 hours curled up tight in a ball of stress - a bag of bones on the edge of existence. It is these individuals that need the ICU to survive.
Inca is now moving forwards, healing by the day, and gaining strength and energy. Photo credit: Kyra Dixon.
After being cleared from quarantine, Inca is now spending his days with Millie, the second baby in the Nursery Unit (shown here). Both monkeys are doing very well, and have energy to spare! Photo credit: Emma Reichard
Highly intelligent, sentient endangered species like howler monkeys need the best care we can provide - but you don't have to be an endangered species to benefit from such an ICU – when not needed for baby monkeys, ours is used for other critical needs - baby squirrels, raccoons, coatis and even a grison. For wildlife rehabilitation organizations such as ours, this is a 'must-have' piece of equipment in the provision of successful critical care for young mammals.
A huge thank you to Brinsea for the significant discount they provided on our first intensive care incubator - a life saving piece of critical care equipment that we have used year after year! If you would like to save a life by contributing to the second incubator for the Wildtracks Nursery Unit, please visit our project appeal site: Saving manatees and monkeys in Belize during Covid
THE SPIDER MONKEYS
During Covid-19 lockdown, Chippa (one of our younger spider monkeys) surprised us with a newborn baby on 12th November, 2020. None of the Satellite 4 group, male or female, were considered old enough to reproduce (though the betting is on ever-precocious Cas being the father), and Chippa has always been a little on the 'chubby' side! Mother and baby (Kali) have both done well - Kali is starting to be more independent of Chippa and is very active, exploring the enclosure when he thinks no-one is watching (Photo Credit: Kyra Dixon)
He is shy...when people are around, however, he heads straight back to Chippa and climbs aboard, taking safety in the close proximity of his mother. Spider monkeys live high up in the forest canopy, moving rapidly from place to place. Chippa arrived as a confiscated illegal pet, less than a year old - and the only way Chippa could have been captured was if her mother was shot. There can be as many as an estimated three spider monkeys injured or killed for every baby caught...and often these babies arrive with injuries - broken limbs, shotgun pellets embedded deep in their bodies. The impact of the illegal wildlife trade can be devastating to wildlife populations and is emptying forests of charismatic wildlife across Central America.
In partnership with the Forest Department, through its no-tolerance policy for illegal captive primates in Belize and increased focus on awareness, we have been able to reduce the numbers of in-country illegal captive monkeys by approximately 95% over the last 10 years! However Covid-19 has resulted in a slight increase in incoming numbers as unemployment soars, the cost of living increases, and more people turn to illegal extraction of wildlife to make a living. Time for us to step up national awareness strategies again!
Manatees at Wildtracks
There is nothing so satisfying as successful conservation outcomes – this January we were revisited by Twiggy, one of our rehab manatees. Twiggy has come a long way since her rescue as an orphaned neonate calf in 2009. At intake, she was only 1.18 m long, and weighed 56 lbs. In 2013, she was over 500 lbs and successfully reintroduced to the wild population in Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. We normally see her for one or two days every six months or so as she passes by, and it is a pleasure to see her well-rounded body and to know that she is doing well in the wild - eight years after release and twelve years after her initial rescue. She is HUGE!!! She now measures approximately 2.6 m...a far cry from the emaciated calf that arrived all those years ago - and is a reminder of the outcomes of the work that we do – the work that your donations support!
You can find more about Twiggy in this SHORT VIDEO, adapted from the children’s book written by Justin Taus, illustrated by Gabrielle Doucet and narrated by Katie Dyke.
Twiggy has stayed longer for this visit, interacting with the four younger manatees on soft release (Hope, Chikki, Callie and Sandy). All four have excelled in the soft release phase – we track them each day using Americaloc GPS trackers and have watched over the last months as they start moving further and further from the lagoon enclosure, heading out to graze on their preferred seagrass areas. Each morning, they return to Wildtracks for a supplemental feed, providing us with the opportunity to check their weight and general condition. We have built up tracking data of their movements over the last five months, providing data that we can use to inform future releases.
Nugget and Teak are next in line for soft release – they are currently housed in the lagoon enclosure, and ‘chat’ with the soft-release manatees through the wire. We have been using acoustic equipment to monitor the chatter, both inside and outside the lagoon enclosure, increasing our knowledge of manatee vocalizations.
Join us on our journey to keep the Wild in Wildlife in Belize!
A huge thank you to our Wildtracks Team (Wildtracks Belize, Wildtracks USA, Wildtracks staff, volunteers and supporters), the Belize Forest Department, the Belize Fisheries Department, donors and grant partners for your support.
A special thank you to Save the Manatee Club, Twycross Zoo and Burgers' Zoo for their continued support during the pandemic!