| August
15, 2005 We have been very busy, but I want to send news and new pictures. Here is our latest newcomer — a babysloth. It's not the same species as Angelica — this one is a two toed sloth, and she was brought by an American tourist. When he arrived at the farm and said, "Hello,I've got a present for you!" I was surprised, as I didn't know him and was looking forward to get some chocolate or maybe a book . . . I wasn't really happy, as you can imagine, when the guy opened his backbag and pulled a tiny sloth out of it. "That's for you." . . . I must confess that I was mostly angry at the first moment, and I actually called the guy an idiot for helping the market for baby animals as he told me he had bought the sloth for 20 Soles. After talking for a while, I wasn't as angry because the man has been working rescuing animals in other countries and at least he gave me a telephone number and promised me to help with veterinarian medicine when we need it. Since that day our English volunteer, Laura, has been taking care of "Adriana" (the American who left her giving her a name) and carries her around. She drinks babymilk, and eats some fruit and the leaves of two special trees. Since yesterday she also started to eat lettuce.  The
spider is one that I had heard wasn't toxic. But when one of them
bit Florian in his hand, he almost died!!! We had to get him to the
vet; Florian had terrible spasms, and even after getting the antidote
he stayed very bad for two days. When it was finally over, he still
couldn't use his hand where it had bitten him for two more days.I'm not sure what the spider is; I have heard the name of "tailless scorpion spider," but I'm not sure. Maybe one of our readers will let us know. Apropos, the manatee, is getting more sociable and is easier to spot. He loves lettuce now and eats $3-4 worth everyday. That's about 8-10kgs worth, and I can finally see that he's growing. We are in contact with an Australian girls' group: They are called "girls on top," and they are doing some fundrising for Pilpintuwasi. They are going to come to Peru in September. I hope all of you are fine. Best wishes, Gudrun |
Amazon Animal Orphanage
Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm
www.AmazonAnimalOrphanage.org
pilpintuwasi@hotmail.com
063-23-2665
Padre Cocha
Iquitos, Peru