Before coming to Pilpintuwasi, Chavo, a Red Uacary, was confiscated by the institute of natural resources (INRENA) – the government entity who is in charge of Peruvian fauna and flora.

Red Uacaries are a species in danger of extinction; the baby monkey had been offered at the market of Belen. His mother had been shot, and the little animal had a bullet wound in his chest and a broken ankle – probably due to the fall when his mother was killed. Chavo lives now for about 4-5 years in Pilpintuwasi and is probably almost 5 years old. The exact age of Pilpintuwasis animals is never known, as they arrive mostly when they are already in a very bad state – having been kept for days or weeks without any appropriate food and little love or care.

Chavo is the monkey who’s been the longest at Pilpintuwasi and he is Gudrun’s darling. He has a very gentle character, although lately he gets sometimes a bit jealous (he has 7 monkey “brothers” now!!). He is very protective with all the other animals. If any of the animals scream, Chavo comes immediately to check what’s going on.

Chavo loves to groom – not only Pilpintuwasis staff or the other monkeys, but almost everybody who visits. He also loves to be groomed by visitors. (There are images of him on the main site fussing with Gudrun’s hair.)

Pauly, another Red Uacary, was brought to Pilpintuwasi by Doña Teresa, who is from the Shipibo tribe. The lady comes from a clan who thinks they are descendents of the Uacary monkeys, On her way to Iquitos, Doña Teresa saw a man kill a Uacary mother so she tried to rescue the baby. She has known about the orphanage for quite some time and she decided to leave the monkey with Gudrun. When “Pauly” arrived, she was very young, maybe about two weeks old, as the bones of her head were still completely soft. Pilpintuwasi’s staff was very afraid she might not survive, but she is a fighter and when she got a terrible diarrhea in the beginning, she drank a a lot of coconut milk and made it through.

Pauly is incredibly sweet and funny, dances around like a hyperactive child and loves her baby food. She moves around with her ‘big brother’ Chavo and it’s amazing how agile she is.

Endangered Animals

This species is threatened by habitat destruction and hunting. They are hunted in Peru and Brazil for their meat or to be used as bait. The species is protected in Peru, but there are very few protection measures in place to preserve the species.

Uakaris prefer swampy or flooded tropical forests that are found along small rivers and lakes for their habitat. They are very intelligent and form large social groups of up to 100 individuals. When foraging, they prefer to split up into smaller groups of up to ten. They are active only in the day and at night climb high into the trees to sleep. Uakaris are herbivorous and feed on seeds, grain, ripe fruits, leaves, nectar, and insects. Mating occurs between October and May, and it is not known how long the gestation period lasts. Females give birth to one young every two years, and the young are nursed for three to five months.

We are already breeding meal worms(Tenebrios) for some of the animals who need a lot of protein in their diet. The breeding of other animals is problematic as our monkeys are free and it would mean more labour and more eventual veterinarian problems and fee . . . so ultimately it would probabaly not be any cheaper than buying meat.

Plants needed for the butterfies are all grown on my land and are practically all the plants we need for the maintainance of the animals.

For the Uakari monkeys we have planted more than 60 different tree species and over 160 saplings; they eat either their shootings or the seeds. Some of the plants are already producing and many will have to grow a few more years.

My tiny sloth is doing well, actually already increased its weight from 400gs to 600! But it still has a long way to go.

I have to visit the Institute of Natural Resources to pick up a boa constrictor and a big turtle to get the papers. (The Institute focuses on establishing national sanctuaries for the protection of the habitat of specific species of flora and fauna, and natural formations of scientific or scenic interest.)

The coloring of Boa constrictors can vary greatly depending on the locality. However, they are generally a brown, grey or cream base color, patterned with brown or reddish brown “saddles” that become more pronounced towards the tail. It is this coloring that gives Boa constrictor constrictor the common name of “red-tailed boa”, as it typically has more red saddles than other boa constrictor subspecies. The coloring works as very effective camouflage in the jungles and forests of its natural range.

The markings on snakes such as a Boa are exquisite. If you get a chance, take time to view not only the snakes but graphic illustrations to consider their geometric perfection.

Boa constrictors are solitary animals, and will only associate with conspecifics to mate. They are nocturnal, however they may bask during the day when night-time temperatures are too low. As semi-arboreal snakes, young boa constrictor individuals may climb into trees and shrubs to forage, however they become mostly terrestrial as they become older and heavier.

As you can imagine, we could not have gotten this far without our faithful donors.

The costs for Pedro Bello’s maintainance are now higher as the dollar has gone down and the prices of beef up. Now I pay 9,5 Soles per kg for his meat and he gets 4-5 kgs per day; the Dollar is down to 2.66, so just for Pedro’s food costs are about $480 US per month.

Also we have to repair or change the mesh of his cage; because he marks his territory, the wire gets rusty and thin from uric acid! We couldn’t get any wire with plastic we built the enclosure, we painted it to prevent corrosion, but with our humid climate, we had to paint the whole cage again last year.

We wanted to take time to explain the real costs for maintaining Pedro Bello and also offer our silent donor an apology for not explaining how much her donations mean, but also that we always incur additional expenses for each animal, including Pedro Bello and whatever new animals the government decides to bring to us (including a new boa constrictor — more about that later!).

The Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm is the only butterfly farm in Peru – and the farm is included on select guided tours. Butterfly farms in tropical rainforest areas are increasingly becoming another important factor contributing to a greater understanding of rainforests and their conservation.

More than 40 species of the most colorful (and least dangerous) insects of the Amazon thrive at Pilpintuwasi. Visitors learn about the problems with finding a host plant for each caterpillar, the life cycle of butterflies, problems with predators, etc.

more than 40 species

At Pilpintuwasi, you will see the rearing of the giant blue Morphos (image above), Helicons, Owl Moths, Swallow tails and many others. Visitors to Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm in Iquitos are able to see the complete life cycle, and learn about the impressive development of butterflies.

Iquitos is situated near the confluence of the Nanay and Amazon rivers. Our butterfly farm and Animal Orphanage are on the banks of the Nanay River.

As we love nature, and are conscious of the threats to flora and fauna, we hope that our efforts will enable our visitors to increase interest in and love of our natural world and help with conservation efforts.

The adult sloth was dropped at my veterinarian’s by a lodge owner. He had taken the animal out of its habitat and hung it near the bungalows of his lodge as an extra attraction, but I don’t know what he hung the animal on. It fell and broke its hip and its right arm. My veterinarian first thought the animal would die, but after having survived a week on pure saline solution, the animal started to have an appetite; its food is only leaves of the Cecropia tree, which are not so easy to find in town.

The vet told me he called the lodge owner to tell him that he should take the anmal back to his lodge and take care of it. But that irresponsible lodge owner (believe me I wrote another word first!) told him he wouldn’t take care of a sick animal and it should be euthanized.

Dr Miguel, my vet, is an animal lover too; he told me the story and asked me to take care of the sloth. As this animal needs to be taken care of for at least another two months, I accepted. It’s a male, and now he seems to have understood that we only want to help him, and doesn’t try to bite anymore, so we also gave him a name: Beto. He has to stay in quarantine with a pillow between his legs and he made himself comfortable half hanging on a thick branch. He is eating well, and is the other little sloth and the monkey.

I also wanted to thank you for all the other ideas to help Pilpintuwasi such as the airline tickets etc. It will help if people purchase their airline tickets through that link! We could really use the help to feed the animals and for medicine. I have asked a Peruvian friend who lives in Lima to find out there about PayPal or any other way to be able to get donations.

I hope everyone had happy and peaceful holidays. I spent them like any other day, but in the evening I celebrated with good sweets and new books also from Austria.

Fortunately all the animals are fine. Even Beto seems to be getting better. All I want for the new Year is health for all of us, including you(r) and my family, and more visitors and volunteers for 2012.

When she gets visits town on Tuesday and Friday and has to fit in shopping, paperwork with the ecological police or the institute of natural resources, take care of medicinal needs for the animals, try to send an update for the Web site, etc.

November-December, 2011:

I don’t know if people can still imagine how it is to live without the Internet . . . we only have access twice a week, mostly to answer emails of my family or correspond with interested volunteers.

There are quite a few new faces at Pilpintuwasi. Here are a few pictures of the newcomers.

Lucy, a two-toed sloth, was sent to Pilpintuwasi by an organisation called “Unidos por los animales (UPA)” who were contacted by a lady that had found the animal on a roof in one of the slums of Lima.

Unfortunately an American zoo is desperately trying to get some red Uakaris for their exhibition and have been paying hunters in the Amazon to kill female adult monkeys so they could get hold of their babies. We managed to get four of those babies from the ecological police and they are being spoiled by the other monkeys — who partly adopted them — and by the staff of Pilpintuwasi.

The second picture shows Lisa, one of the new red Uakaris, who’s about nine months old. My big male Uakaris are now adult and unfortunately very jealous and territorial, so we had to build a cage for them. They are still very friendly and extremely nice to women, but they want to be the only males at Pilpintuwasi, and after we had some problems — a guide was bitten by Nico — we decided to keep them in a cage from Tuesday to Sunday. Their only day off now is Monday, and that’s a big headache for all.

We would like to reproduce the red Uakaris as there is almost nothing known about them and they are in danger of extinction. To be able to protect both visitors and monkeys I have a new dream, but it would take a considerable amount of money to do it. I’m thinking of building a wire mesh tunnel all over the walkway at Pilpintuwasi so people can go around inside that tunnel and see the animals acting normally in their natural habitat. Maybe it’s a crazy idea, but I don’t see another solution.

(Editor’s Note: This is a logical solution and is utilized around the world in varying degrees. Xcaret on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is practicing a version of this type of environmental care with various endangered species, including Sea Turtles.)

The third picture shows Juanita, one of our two coaties and we have Negrita a Sakimonkey who was dropped by ecologica police and now has a broken leg. (She is one of three Saki monkeys at Pilpintuwasi, along with Florian, the young adult male.)

During this year we had some very nice volunteers who helped me a lot and I would like to thank them here:

• Anne Kathrin from Germany
• Shawna from Canada
• Katie from Australia who, as a trained zookeeper taught us a lot about enrichment
• Geert and Heidi from Belgium
• Louise, Robin, Miriam, Carola and another very nice Italian woman
• I also want to say thank you for the donations from Mrs Demeter Kraanj and from Ms. Irene from Poland
• I have been talking to Molly the founder of Amazon CARES , who has just been in Iquitos for a few weeks, but was very busy, and she promised me to send the donations next week.

Love from all of us
~ Gudrun

Please visit us in Iquitos! Iquitos is situated near the confluence of the Nanay and Amazon rivers. Our butterfly farm and Animal Orphanage are on the banks of the Nanay River.

IMPORTANT: More and more tourists think they are helping exotic animals by buying them from a random person on the street who claims to have “found it abandoned in the jungle.” While tourists mean well, purchasing such an animal anywhere in the world exacerbates the problem by creating a black market.

No animals leave offspring before they are able to survive on their own. Every animal being sold on the street is there because its parent was killed, perhaps by the person trying to sell it! And every animal being sold on the street is in ill health.

Should you purchase such an animal, albeit well-meaning, you are actually giving the seller a reason to kill another parent in order to sell its offspring, and you are putting yourself in jeopardy because the purchase of an exotic creature is illegal in all countries.

If the animals are lucky, they are brought to a center such as the Amazon Animal Orphanage. But that will not stop the problem. Only you can help stop this problem. Do not buy animals from street vendors. Report them to local authorities.

Please, before visiting open habitats, read National Geographic or watch Animal Planet, both of which caution against purchasing exotic creatures and both of which provide information about the illegality of purchasing exotic animals.

Thanks to Amazon Cares NGO, I recently received 145U$ donation — it took some time, but finally we recieved the money.

The Baby Ocelot

We also got a little ocelot in March. First it weighed less than a kilo; now Harry—that’s her name— weighs 5kgs . . . that’s a picture of her on top of the page.

A Reminder: Please do not buy baby animals; the black market has to be stopped and won’t be as long as people can sell these orphaned animals to unsuspecting tourists. (The sellers generally have killed the parents of the animals; parents do not abandon their animals in the wild.)

Rosita, the Anteater

We got a new anteater— again the mother was hunted and eaten, and the baby left at Pilpintuwasi — with a bullet wound. She’s also named Rosita. Her caretaker —a boy from the village— carries her around and looks for ant nests for her). The vet cured her bullet wound. Rosita has been a month with me—she’s still very small, weighs 4kgs she needs extra proteins, similar to those used by a bodybuilder. It is more expensive to feed her right now than the jaguar as she consumes weekly three jars of powdered milk without lactosis, needs daily vitamin K and the proteins. Cross all your fingers please that she gets big and strong.

Last week I also got two baby sloths from some people who had killed the mothers to eat them.

Chavo is fortunately still with us, but we have not yet found a medication that really helps with her epileptic seizures. Some veterinarians recommended  Pottasium Bromide, but Istill don’t have the exact information about how to use that drug, so she’s still on Fenitoina—but has many seizures. It’s almost a miracle that she’s still so nice and good natured.

Toni the pickpocket had to be put into jail. She started to get really aggressive with human females, bit a few girls, and finally we had to put her in a cage, together with Junior, the black cappuchin, who started to bite children. Both of them now have company—a little white-fronted cappuchin who was dropped at the farm by a tourist, who had bough ther on the way to Iquitos in one of the boats.

Tony adopted the baby and all of them are fine.

Best wishes and all my love,

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