Puma or Later
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2007
1
27
35
Trip End
May 29, 2008
Santa Cruz,
Bolivia
Sunday, March 16, 2008
The day after the exodus of volunteers there was an incident with Yuma the puma - she jumped up a tree while being walked by a different volunteer, and the guy eventually had to let go the rope rather than strangle her when she went down the tree a different way
Vanesso in cognito
. He managed to get her back on the rope, but by then they were off her trail in dense jungle and she was very worked up, so he was unable to take her back to the cage alone. He tied her to a tree in a dry area and managed to get back to the road and then to camp by mid afternoon. That left us with an aggitated puma tied to a tree somewhere in an area of very, very wet, dense jungle about 500m by 800m, bordered on 2 sides by road and farmland. Not a big area, but with little natural light even in the day, a lot of waist deep water and bamboo, and where sound travels very poorly and visiblity is low. In the nearly 2 hours it had taken him to get out to the road he´d not been able to maintain a straight course (without a compass), so in the end it took shifts of search parties, including Nick, just over 24 hours to find Yuma, and another 12 to get her back in the cage. Certainly, lessons were learned about organisation and judgement during that time (the group who found her had gone out at 4.30pm with only 2 torches for 6 people search in pairs, and spent a miserable 8 hours out there, mainly in darkness and heavy rain, eventually realising it was no longer viable to cut their way back to her trail that day as was originally planned). Still, everyone got back safe and sound, if down a few gumboots. Had the puma been on the loose she risked being shot by neighbouring farmers. There were rashes, blisters, pains, a LOT of fungus, a lot of white pasta and rice with little on it, a lot of cockroaches and spiders, a lot of putting on dirty, wet clothes, a LOT of mud, massive numbers of mosquitoes - a swedish girl counted 359 on my right hand a few days ago - a few disagreements, but all in all we had a great time. We met some great people - you´ve got to be a bit strange to go and work with big cats in the rainy season in the middle of Bolivia - and learnt some valuable things, too
Faustino in disguise
. In the end Nicholas was able to get Wayra walking on 2 ropes (with 2 people), and leaves knowing she is calmer and will have a better quality of life because she can be worked with more closely and exercised because of his care. As for Vanesso, I´m not sure how much we bonded, but I really was touched on my last morning with him, when, after nearly a month of seemingly futile patience and persuasion, he decided it was time to go on a proper walk up his trail, in spite of the water, and we spent a lovely hour wading through the overgrown pathway. While there, I made his cage a bit safer and more secure, cleared his runner of vegetation so he could exercise more freely, hid a lot of raw chicken parts in trees, and in the end he was slightly less cranky and a bit nicer to me. On my final day he rushed to greet me in his cage by climbing onto a low platform and butting me firmly in the knees with his head three times, then rubbing against them with his body - for the first 3 weeks I mainly just got sulky knee biting, low growling and lazy attempts to claw me. I don´t flatter myself that he will remember or miss me, but I certainly learnt to be more patient in our time together, and also that, with ocelots as with people, you are judged in every encounter and should try to be fair, consistent, not show fear and always send clear messages about yourself and what you expect of others
Amiria and Tinga
.And I must admit he´s rather cute hunting for lizards.
There is very good coffee in Santa Cruz, so we will spend about 4 days here relaxing, sipping cortados (espresso with a little bit of foamed milk) and cleaning or having cleaned pretty much everything we brought with us.
We´ve already worked with or seen most of the stuff to be spotted in the pantanal, so our new plan is to go pretty quickly up to Quito (the capital of Ecuador, one of the smallest countries in South America and still larger than New Zealand).
Special mention to Richard Grainger, a brit we met at the park, who is currently in hospital with pneumonia after getting a fever of 41 upon return to Santa Cruz. He is in good spirits, and we hope he makes a speedy recovery even though he is a keen Kylie Monogue fan.
We´ll try and put some pictures on this entry in the next 24 hours or so.
Comments
bunny crossing
Looks like I might be first to wish you a hapy Easter. We will be staying put and enjoying five days off (yay, this teaching has some perks). Dad is off to Wanaka with Graham to look at the airshow. The main problem with the pictures is the slow internet so it might be easier for you to see them in three months when you get home (Jakes first birthday will be June 14). I am impressed by the stories about you guys living in the rough.
Ed