Lolo's Story

Lolo is a baby.  When he was four months old (much like other four month old babies), he was already quite adept at climbing trees and hanging onto his hairy mom while she navigated the rainforest canopies of Central America...

Well, any white-faced capuchin baby, that is.

Unfortunately for Lolo, and increasingly for more and more monkey babies, his mom was killed.  Which doesn't really make sense, except for if you think about that killing her would be the only way Lolo's mother would let him go. 

Kind of vaildates the expression, "Over my dead body."

Lolo is a primate and so was his mom, and primate moms are not very willing to let someone walk away with their babies.  Is it then too horrible to know that this is how baby apes and monkeys are sold into the pet trade? Because that's what happens.

Fast forward one month after Lolo's mom's death and his being sold to a hotel owner in Granada, Nicaragua.  It is at this time, in late January of 2013, that my fate mingles with his.  Having worked some with primates is various rescue centers in the US and Africa, I suggest to Lolo's owner that perhaps a small cage in a hotel is not the best setting for an emotionally and intelligently dynamic and social primate.

Fortunately, Lolo's owner agrees.  And Lolo and I set out for a rescue center in mid-February, to begin the long road of socialization, rehabilitation, and release back into the wild.

And So?

In the entire country of Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, there is ONE wildlife rescue center.  One center to accommodate all the confiscated and rescued endangered animals that continue to be vulnerable to the lucrative business of selling wild animals as pets.  

Hundreds of animals call this rescue center home (managed by non-profit organization FAZOONIC), sometimes for months at a time.  The center is overwhelmed and underfunded.  Animals are dropped off every week: spider monkeys, capuchins, macaws, parrots, parrakeets, raccoons, snakes, iguanas, ocelots, coyotes, tamanduas, turtles, opossums, squirrels .... well, you get the picture. Every single one of these animals was taken from the wild, presumably to be sold into the pet trade.  Now, think of all the animals that didn't make it to the rescue center, and you may start to see the tip of how pervasive this trade is.  

The first thing you notice when you walk onto the grounds of the rescue center is that it is actually quite small.  Really, it occupies only the very back corner of the grounds adjacent to the National Zoo.  And then you realize how many animals are there ... Cage after cage after cage of animals.  You get the sense that the rescue center makes use of every spare possible cage and then some, perhaps fashioning something from scrap wood and wire.  And while it is easy to feel disgruntled at the size of the cages and the sheer mass of creatures within them, please remember three things. 

1. They are the only rescue center in Nicaragua.

2. They are terribly underfunded.

3. The turn no creature away.

So....

So, in volunteering at the rescue center since bringing Lolo here a week ago, I would very much like, with the cooperation of Humane Society International, the main funder of the rescue center, to raise funds to expand current cages, build proper climbing structures, and perhaps build help to fund building new enclosures, as well.  

The Center has also specifically asked for things to outfit their neonatal unit, as well.  They are:

1. A refrigerator/freezer                                                              US $500

2. A food processor                                                                   US $100

3. An incubator                                                                         US $500

PLUS

4. Cost of enclosure improvements, including material and labor    US $8000

5. Misc materials to improve current cages                                  US $800

6. Fee that goes to indiegogo.com if we raise our funds                US ~ $800

Please consider giving what you can.  The rescue center operates on an absolute bare bones budget, and they need all the help they can get.  Soon, these animals, including Lolo, will be returned to the wild to make room for the endless stream of animals that continue to come in.  The next round, so to speak.  But because their funding is so limited, they will continue to house these animals in cages, smaller cages, and even smaller cages made from scraps of wood and wire.  Until the mentality can shift, and people can begin to appreciate wildlife by leaving animals where they belong: in the wild.  In Mother Nature's arms.  I for one ask her every day to please be gentle with Lolo once he is back in her care, and his time has ceased with the humans.

To learn more about primates and primate rescue through Lolo's eyes, please visit his blog at whoislolo.wordpress.com