Safari West

Last weekend, Brian and I went to Safari West with about 20 of my WCN volunteers. Safari West is a 400 acres reserve and they have all kinds of animals, mostly from Africa, but some from elsewhere, like the parrot below. As I am about to embark on my first trip to Africa in July I thought this would be a good introduction to some of the animals I am likely to see. I also bought a 100-400 mm zoom lens for my trip and this was a perfect chance to get some practice using it! Check out the shots below and marvel at how close the lens gets me! Then check out www.SafariWest.com for more info on this really cool place in Northern California. Melis, if you ever come to visit me we will have to take you up there!

I will definitely see cheetahs in Africa as I am visiting both of our cheetah projects there!

Safari West: Babies!

Here is a baby calf getting milk the natural way.....

And here is a baby Aoudad getting a little help! This baby is named Peanut (and only slightly less cute than our own Peanut kitty!) and he was rejected by his mother and herd because he is a little wobbly on his feet. In the wild, this unsure footing would make him unlikely to be able to climb the slopes of their mountain habitat and also make him less likely to escape predators so investing time and energy into the baby is considered a waste of time to the herd. Luckily, at Safari West he can get fed by a bottle and grow to adulthood!

Safari West: Check out how close the lens gets me!

This is a female Kudu...I think.  I will make sure to have it identified before I go to Africa!

This is an Addax or White Antelope. It is considered extinct in the wild so I won't see one in Africa. Isn't it funny looking? It looks like it is wearing a hairpiece!

Safari West: Cape Buffalo

I think I have a little snot coming out of my nose......

 Got it!

Proyecto Titi Event: Saving the Cotton-Top Tamarin

Last Saturday was the second event I planned for WCN and it was another smashing success! This time we were raising money for our primate project in Colombia. Proyecto Titi works to save the cotton-top tamarin, a species endemic to Northwestern Colombia through research, education, and the design of economic alternatives to activities that destroy the tamarin's forest habitat. Below is one of those economic alternatives: eco-mochilas. Anne and Rosamira, the conservationists behind the project, taught a village to make mochilas out of plastic shopping bags. 100% of the proceeds of these bags go directly to this village, Los Limites, and over 200 people are able to sustain themselves on the revenues each year. This means that they no longer practice devastating slash and burn agriculture and they also don't capture the tamarins to sell them on the exotic pet trade black market. To learn more or buy a bag, go to www.proyectotiti.com
The picture below was taken during the pre-event staff and volunteer meeting. Don't I look official with my clipboard? See how they all listen so attentively to me? Oh, the power!haha

We sold the mochilas at the event and made over 3 grand for the villagers that make the bags! These bags have such a cool story and make very cool fair trade and environmentally friendly gifts. So, of course, I cherry picked the best designs for my girls back home before the event! The whole village is involved in their creation. The children go around and collect the plastic bags, the men sanitize them and cut them into ribbons, and then the women weave them into these beautiful reusable mochilas!
All photos are courtesy of one of my great volunteers: Marty Varon. You can click on any that catch your eye for a larger view!

Proyecto Titi Event Part 2

At the event, we had a tracking demonstration. Anne brought in stuffed monkeys and hid them all over the yard! These monkeys weigh less than 1 pound fully grown and so you can't use radio collars and such on them as the collar would weigh more than the monkey! So the PT staff temporarily captures the tamarins with the help of some bananas and dyes each individual's hair a unique color and then places a small GPS satellite locater on them. This way they are able to track the monkeys to collect data on their daily activities to better understand their needs.

Proyecto Titi Event Part 3

The pictures below were taken during the eco-mochila weaving demonstration. These bags are SOOO green and earth friendly. Each mochila uses 120 plastic shopping bags and takes the ladies a day and half to weave. They have long since cleaned up the plastic litter on the forest floor and are now having the bags shipped in by the truckload. Plastic shopping bags are like gold there so if you have a 1,000 or so lying around, you know where to send them!

Proyecto Titi Event part 4

Here is the bar. We had Mar Titis for the event! Cute, no? Sherry, the third gal in the picture below, came up with it. In the picture below, the event is about to wrap...Stacey and Sherry and I were chatting about how well it went....It looks like a few of our donors plan to pony up the million dollars Proyecto Titi needs to purchase the remaining cotton-top habitat in Colombia. Yay!