BOLIVIA: Animal refuge in the Chapare Valley provides a safe haven for abused wild animals

On a private reserve of thirty-eight hectares deep in the Chapare Valley of Bolivia hundreds of broken, abused and traumatized wild animals have found a refuge. For more than ten years, some 1,125 animals have called the Inti Wara Yasi Refuge home. These animals, which include tigers, monkeys, pumas and birds, were all rescued from animal traffickers or people who kept them in inappropriate environments as pets. Most of them have been mistreated, and have suffered fractures or have been undernourished. Here, in the most natural of environments, the animals are taught to re-adapt to the wild, or - for cases that are too far gone - given a better life and a warmer environment to live out their days. Many, like the puma Quirqui, have benefited greatly from their time at the refuge. Quirqui was rescued from a zoo in Oruro, whose average temperature was zero degrees centigrade all year. Quirqui arrived at the zoo displaying aggressive behaviour and suffering from testicular problems and osteoporosis, all of which have been overcome at the refuge. But the refuge does not only draw abused animals. It also attracts people from all over the world who are trying to heal. Thirty-two foreign volunteers and ten Bolivian volunteers work at the refuge. Many of them are young people who arrive with their own problems, finding in this natural environment a place where they can worry about the animals needs, and learn to forget their own traumas. According to Juan Carlos Antezana, who works at the animal refuge, the idea is simple. "In principle our philosophy is to raise up any being that is fallen. From that, its not just that the animals are lifted with these parks, but that there are children from homes, from orphanages, that they send us when they have a lot of psychological problems, and they come here to recover. So there is also a union of two types of orphans, the orphans of the jungle and the orphans of the city," he said. Some of the foreign volunteers are also professionals who come from a variety of backgrounds - from flight engineers to administrators - all of whom wish to experience a different way of life. For Antezana, they come to offer whatever they can to the animals in need. "People come from all parts of the world to have this opportunity to offer a service, above all to the animals," he said. Many of them extend their originally one-week stay for months at a time. Andrew Axtell from Scotland looks after macaws who have broken their wings and can't fly. "During the day we bring the birds out of the cages and interact with the birds to give them a little bit more of interest. The parrots are very intelligent animals, they want the interaction with you," explained Axtell. Axtell is a flight engineer who has been in Bolivia for three months looking after these birds. "This is a career break for me, I've been doing an office job for twenty years and this is a complete change to join," he said. Julio Salazar works with traumatised animals, placing them in the correct environment and monitoring the animal's food intake. "That is my job, to see what animals have trauma, and where they can be, in what places, all of that. And to monitor the animals food, and to organise all the work, as well as with the volunteers," he explained. Michael Tink from Switzerland has been working with Tequila, another of the refuge's pumas, who was rescued from a travelling circus. "I was afraid the first couple of days working with her, because she used to be a problem catch, that is what I was told, but I changed some things, and now she is my pussy cat," he said. Each of the animals has their own special volunteer who takes charge of the animal's necessities and ensures that their personal charge is well looked after. Ten years on from its birth, the project is also in the process of purchasing 815 hectares in the tropical departments of Beni and Santa Cruz, for the animals who need a hotter environment. The refuge is maintained through donations from volunteers and the money received from visitors who come to see the animals readapting to their natural environments.

ITN Source | November 5, 2005

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