As I write this, a bushbaby is yelping in the woods close to my hut. I wonder what's the matter!
I know what I said, but this morning I had a peanut butter banana toast sandwich for breakfast.
This morning was the coldest.
Today was also quite slow.
The first thing we did was learn how to do the morning duties of the orphan care workers. Many orphans are brought into the park due to abandonment, kidnapping->confiscation, and poaching of their mothers. The majority of the orphans here are vervet or baboon monkeys, but the Centre also currently has a serval kitten, two baby barn owls, and a couple of baby diekers. All these babies need special care. The Orphan Care (OC) takes on this role at the Centre. This practical was a very site-specific exercise, but I think it was a good experience in general. It was interesting to think about how much is available to us at Emory... They do their best with what they have. Preventing cross contamination is a major part of OC's daily objectives. Along with laundry, bleaching, disinfectant, food prep, and dishes, we also went to the forest to gather browse (branches, natural enrichment) for the orphans to frolic with.
Mainly what I got from this practical was perspective.
Then, blowdart practice!!!
There are many reasons why an animal would need to be darted. The main reason is if an animal has a scheduled health check and needs to be anesthetized but cannot easily be captured by staff. Training is not an option in this case because the main focus of this facility is to eventually release the animals back into the wild, so to have regular training sessions only makes the animal more familiar and comfortable with humans. Because humans are generally dangerous to animals, they need the animals to continue running away from humans here!
So, the staff resorts to darting.
Also, an animal should be darted if it escapes or needs to be relocated but cannot be managed awake.
Jasper showed us how to load and assemble the darts. You have to be a major badass to be a dart pro. Thus, the Head Head Vet here handles most of the darting. We took the whole shebang out into the wilderness to try some good ole fashioned target practice. First, the blowdarts! This was rad and I felt like Lara Croft. Jasper graded my performance above average so I can die happy. Next, he had an air pressured 'pistol' contraption that shot at a more dependable rate, though was harder to aim somehow. We took several shots each! It made me smile a lot.
Then, lunch. I really want to dissect the conversation I brought up about gun rights in America. I'm not going to do it, but Lord I wish I'd taped it for you all. It was me and one representative from each of the following countries- Austria, Jamaica, The Netherlands, and Portugal. I always try to bring this topic up with people from around the world because it's funny how secluded hardcore gun rights activists are without knowing it. No one in the entire world, THE ENTIRE WORLD, agrees with them! Haha, it's just funny. I'm not unpacking this any further here, but I do have a specific request to tell you that Jamaicans are scared of Americans for this exact reason. I felt like Natalie Maines.
After lunch we had a pharmacology lesson. I am struggling to not be interested in vet med because I don't have time or money for that kind of interest but JESUS that stuff is intriguing!
Then, a practical with Alma about how the hell do you get a monkey to take its medicine? We got our hands all sticky trying to solve problems like, "how do you make a monkey swallow this calcium pill?" Answer: smush the pill, cut a slit into a banana, and sprinkle the pill powder in the banana slit. Then, "what if the monkey is bored of bananas?" Also, "how do you give a baboon 4 mls of this syrup?" Or, "make a vessel to deliver this liquid medicine to a monkey if you have to throw it over a fence." Lots of problems and lots of brainstorming. There's so much to consider. Lions and turtles need their medicine too! It was a fun exercise!!
Then, a basic lecture introducing enrichment from a new character. Her name is Mandy and she's basically identically me in every way except further ahead in her life so I obviously feel the need to eliminate her. But I'm civil, so I'm gonna make friends with her.
-LA
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