Sloth Sanctuary Suriname sequel: the whole story!

As we already let you know in our first report this year, we had a very busy start of 2019. Not only with meetings and trainings, and thinking of where we want to focus our attention in the coming years. We also had many many rescues. And these rescues were due to what we think was an unusual dry period that started in January.

And I have to mention the elephant in the room...the problem of climate change facing Suriname is real and enormous. With 90 percent of our infrastructure in the low-lying coastal zone, Suriname will suffer great consequences from sea level rise and the effects of climate change. The effects are already starting to show in terms of stronger winds, shifting seasons, more extreme weather events during the different seasons, such as more rainfall causing flooding and longer droughts. Strong winds and small tornados cause damage to our infrastructure, like our houses, but also to our forests. Small tornados can cause the destruction of complete forest patches in a matter of minutes.

Climate change has a direct effect on the lives of the animals we work with. In the past months we did not only have an increase in rescues, sometimes one per day and sometimes more than one per day, but we also saw an increase in the animals that arrived in a poor condition. In a period of 3 months we had 63 rescues, while we normally rescue around 150 animals per year. A lot of animals were dehydrated, requiring subcutaneous fluids, and some were so badly dehydrated that we could not help them anymore. In addition, we had an increase in very small infants, weighing under 300 g, that had been abandoned by their mothers. None of these survived. We are not yet sure, how and if flooding and extreme rain is also going to affect the animals similarly.

Suriname is a country with almost 90% forest cover and a small population of around 550,000 people, we are a country that has contributed little to man-made climate change. There is little we can do to stop the industrialized world from doing business as usual and continuing to pump greenhouse gases in the air. So the most we can do in our country is to think of adaptive measures that will ensure that we can survive as a society and help us build our infrastructure beyond the zone of immediate impact. The only thing I kept thinking of when the drought was so pervasive, is how we could use the enormous freshwater potential of our country to maintain our forests now and in the future by devising smart irrigation methods that will keep our forests alive, and the animals (and people) that depend on them.

Jinkoe, one of the sloths that moved with us from my house to the new center and who became one of the first animals to make the sloth wellness center her home, unfortunately may have fallen victim to the effects of this severe drought. I wrote a special piece about her life at the center. Anna who had a baby earlier this year, probably lost her baby also as a result of the drought. It is with this reflection on these changes that are occurring that I end the report for this period. Planting trees, replenishing the forests and restoring biodiversity are what is foremost in my mind at this moment.

Thank you for your continued support, and please keep an eye out for the upcoming Paws + Claws Matching campaign on the 22nd of May in honour of the International Day of Biological Diversity.

Although 2018 ended a little bit in an unfortunate incident, with the rescue van being rammed off the road by a speed devil. GHFS was able to make a positive start in 2019. Not aware that a whiplash would have such house-binding consequences, I had to refrain for most of December and January from activities like rescues and releases, and actually most activities. The verdict was: no pushing, no pulling, no lifting and no carrying. And of course, no driving and exercising.

Fortunately, the GHFS team picked up all these activities, and rescues and releases continued. Our vehicle is still not repaired and we use private cars to do the rescues and releases. So most important is that I can tell you, we are continuing our work. We are immensely grateful for the end-of-year donations that came in, and which help us maintain our current level of activities. And also help with improvements to how we care for the animals.

In cooperation with our German partner WTG, we organized in January a Medicine of Sloths workshop for veterinary doctors and held a Wildlife Welfare Roundtable Discussion with a diverse group of stakeholders. The Medicine of Sloths workshop was taught by Claudia Brieva, lecturer in wildlife medicine at the University of Bogota in Colombia. She reserved a week out of her busy schedule to come down to Suriname and teach seven local veterinary doctors how to care for sloths that are in need of specialized care.

Biologist Carlos del Valle kicked of the meeting with a presentation about the taxonomy of the Xenarthra. Claudia Brieva then continued with the natural history of sloths, anatomy of sloths, followed by a general presentation about the medicine of sloths and diseases. At the end of the day, a sloth was examined prior to release as the animal had a small hairless spot on a leg. After treatment the animal was released as the conclusion was that he did not need to be held for further treatment. On the second day a rescued anteater was examined prior to release by the whole group of veterinary doctors. Then Claudia Brieva continued with the subjects of rehabilitation, post confiscation management and the care of infants. Two post-mortems were conducted by the group on animals that had unfortunately died last year shortly after they had been rescued. Nothing we did not know already, showed up in these post-mortems. However, it was a useful experience for the veterinary doctors.

The Wildlife Welfare Roundtable discussion was a good starting point for discussion with a diverse group of stakeholders on how the health of wildlife is linked to our own health. Participants had been provided with information on our website put together by Rory Wakeford, a volunteer with GHFS. Daniela Schrudde from WTG gave an introduction into the concept of One Health, showing how complex systems can be disturbed and lead to dire consequences for human health. The participants were very much engaged and looking forward to follow-up discussions on the different aspects of wildlife welfare and the role they play in helping to ensure welfare for animals and human beings alike.

It was a busy but good start of 2019 and we are looking forward to sharing with you more about how we use information, knowledge and discussion to improve the welfare of the animals we work with. We wish you a Happy Year of the Earth Pig. And thank you for supporting our work!

Links:

• wildlife welfare part 1
• wildlife welfare part 2
• wildlife welfare and sloths