Wildlife Friends, Part 2

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  Phetchaburi, Thailand
Thursday, September 25, 2008

As my time at the Wildlife Rescue Centre ends, it hasn't escaped me just how out of date my blog has become, and how bad I have been at keeping in touch with people during the last six weeks.

It's hard to explain the effect the Wildlife Rescue Centre has had on me, but I'll try now, and if I do a really bad job, at least you've still got about a million cute animal pictures to ooh and aah over.

I've spent most of my time at the WRC working on the team Primates 2, along with my friend Annika.  We've both really enjoyed it and have become very close to the animals we work with.  We work mostly with macaques, although we have some involvement with the gibbons too, because we are responsible for providing enrichment to all the primates at the centre

Bandit, Wandee and Ithem playing in fountain

.  That's the best job I could imagine and I don't think I could ever tire of trying to find new ways to keep the animals physically and mentally stimulated.  Of course as in any job like this I have my favourite animals.  There are too many to list, but the highlight of every day for me is turning on the 'fountain' for three young macaques - Bandit, Ithem and Wandee - to play in. 

There have of course been ups and downs while I've been at the centre, and the emotional attachment that most volunteers form with the animals mean that we really come together as a team at those times.  The deaths of Mac and Emma's lovely puppy Jingle Bells were grieved by everyone at the centre, and at times it was hard to move on and concentrate on those animals we are able to help.  The serow rescue was another particularly turbulent time, but I don't think I could explain the situation any better than Edwin already has, so here is a link to that story.

On a lighter note it's been great to see positive changes happening around the centre.  I've seen animals move from solitary cages into groups that they were finally able to interact with, and gibbons move from old, inadequate enclosures into new state-of-the-art ones up in the treetops in the jungle.  I was lucky enough to be able to see the huge area of new land which, once construction work has been done, will enable the centre's elephants to be taken off their chains forever.  The rate at which progress takes place at the centre has really astounded me, especially given the lack of funds available to a charity of this type.

Socially the centre has been a great experience too.  I've had a lot of fun and made some life-long friends, and it was really hard to say goodbye. 

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures & Videos

1-Bandit, Wandee and Ithem playing in fountain	Bong making her 'Beavis and Butthead' noises	QD	Andie
Chakchan	1-Chakchan	Huey	2-Chakchan
Baby macaque with padlock	Susi	Susi and Happy from Koh Chang	Elephant
1-Elephant	Sumo the Slow loris	Sumo	Scrap in her favourite spot for a nap
Scrap	QD	Iguana	Iguana walk
Sam the rescued beach pony	Tom, Lucy and Yo on a night out in Hua Hin	Anej and Tao	Dr Yo
Tao and me	Yo	Yo and Anej	Tao
Tom	Tom and Lucy	1-Anej and Tao	Tao and Lucy
1-Tao and Lucy	The vet team checking out some new arrivals	Chakchan	Macaque hand
George	Macaques in the field	A field macaque	Another field macaque
Baby macaque	1-Baby macaque	Demon baby	Eddie the gibbon
Air	Air climbing the gibbon enclosure	Eddie playing on gibbon toys	Air fixing up the new gibbon enclosure
1-Air	Emma making gibbon enrichments	Air in the gibbon enclosure	Eddie and Air
Lauren	Mickey and Rozzie	1-Mickey and Rozzie	Mickey
Pat and Annika	Anej and Mickey	Pat, Mickey and Anej	Me
Lauren and me	Lauren, me and Pat	Me and Pat	1-Lauren and me
Lyndsey scatter-feeding the field macaques	Stump-tailed macaque	Stump-tailed macaque and baby	Baby stump-tailed macaque
Geoff serenading Mickey on Italian Night	1-Lauren	1-Mickey	Anej
Eddie	Lyndsay and Eddie	Monica and Tao	1-Tom and Lucy
Chili shots...	1-Eddie	Eddie and Anej	Rozzie
Marianne, Sebastian, Fiene,	2-Lauren	Marianne and Sebastian	1-Rozzie
Daisy	Lucy	2-Mickey	Anej and me
macaques in field enclosure	1-macaques in field enclosure	2-macaques in field enclosure	Playing in the fountain
1-Playing in the fountain	2-Playing in the fountain	3-Playing in the fountain	4-Playing in the fountain
5-Playing in the fountain	6-Playing in the fountain	7-Playing in the fountain	8-Playing in the fountain
9-Playing in the fountain	10-Playing in the fountain	11-Playing in the fountain	12-Playing in the fountain
13-Playing in the fountain	14-Playing in the fountain	15-Playing in the fountain	Bears
1-Bears	2-Bears	3-Bears	4-Bears
The bear man with his bears...	Oompoom	Air and Anej	1-Air and Anej
Tom and Lauren	Tao, Monica, Lauren, Air	Tao and Monica	3-Lauren
Anej and Lauren	Tao, Air, Lauren	1-Tom	Monica
1-Yo	Macaque eating dragonfruit	Gibbon islands	1-Gibbon islands
Cookie	2-Gibbon islands	Tom and Lauren in the lake	.
Football	1-Football	2-Football	3-Football
Eddie and Lauren	Creepy Eddie	Domestic violence	Sian, Pat and Larissa
Larissa	Larissa, Eddie and Lauren	Creepier Eddie	Geoff
1-Geoff	Smokers' bar	Katie and Tom	Lauren, Eddie and me
On the lake at dawn	1-On the lake at dawn	Pat, Marianne and Sebastian	Larissa and Annika
1-Me	Macaque drinking	2-Baby macaque	Gang

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