Please "Adopt" us for the Holidays

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Please consider the gift of life and hope to our rescued animals this holiday season!
Years ago I "adopted" a whale and the group that was protecting them sent me photos and updates, I really looked forward to hearing about where "my" whale had been seen, how far he had traveled. It was fun and I learned all about whales. Now we have blogs and internet to help us learn about wild animals and the joys of supporting such efforts :)

Adoption is a great option for those who would like to support our efforts...We have released 5 sloths to date and several this past year. Each sloth that comes into our program is here for a reason: an injury, abandoned, fell from a tree, fights, burns and mistreated by humans.

All of them have to be evaluated by our veterinarian, fed and cared for.

This can add up and we are looking for support for our various sloths.

I will give you some good news!! We have donations for Millie and Georgie enclosures, and will begin these in Jan. Thank you!!

Adoption certificates will be sent along with a photo of your favorite sloth,

Twili, Millie, Milo and Georgie. (I finally found a nice certificate-one that I can print up here...)

Eight years ago we began accepting toucans in need, and we have become known for the excellent work we do recovering these beautiful birds. We have had to say no to some animals, but we will never say no to the toucans. Currently we have 35 in our care. We are setting up a breeding program for release, and have been successful in reproducing the Emerald Toucanets.
Owl Fund! Please do an office pool, or a challenge for support, match the donation, for our 15 owls. We have to purchase from a poultry farm 700 chicks a month to feed them along with supplementing them with rats and mice that we breed here. Some of the most beautiful raptors in Costa Rica, and not many rescue centers accept these owls. We receive owl babies since they are very difficult to raise, and every adult owl that has come into the program has come with severe injuries that require extensive orthopedic surgeries and a long recovery process.

Many of you contributed to Isadora Spider monkey's enclosure and I can tell you that she is so happy and appreciative of her new space. Thank You!! She needs constant food since she is so High Energy, to put it frankly, she eats like a horse! Much of the fruit that we purchase weekly goes to her, little miss piggy. She is doing great and is a joy, loves to visit when we do tours and always shows off her acrobatic skills. Adopting Issy would help us keep up the fruit supply!

Jou Jou is just like Issy in a way, constant energy, totally recuperated and loves her new enclosure!


Pokey is back from the vet's, he lived with them for about a month...now you can imagine if your dog or cat stayed at the vets for that long, you would have a huge bill, well, we considered this a huge bill, but compared to the states, this is not costly at all. $120.00 for all his treatment, and as you can see he is doing so much better after his horrible infection from some animal attacking him. He is finally getting new quills and fur, but will probably have a bald backside :( We hope Quilla our beautiful girl will fall in love with him anyway. Pokey still needs medical treatment, so please consider adopting him!

Adopt an endangered Scarlet Macaw! Our macaws are at breeding age, and we are going to set them up for breeding for release. Young macaws will be placed with other release programs in the country. So, if you are a bird person, please help us support the 30 some parrots in our care! The seed mix and nuts that we feed, (along with fruits and vegetables) are imported, and anything imported is extremely expensive, We use a 23 kilo sack, around 50lbs per week, and this costs around $48, add in the nuts and we are up to $60.

300 pounds of Papaya per week, 20lbs of green beans and 25 lbs of carrots!

Farmers market fund! We can easily spend $150 per week on fresh fruits and vegetables for all the birds and animals.

Overwhelmed? I am, whew! I include all these figures so that folks have an understanding of what is involved in the day to day life at the Toucan Rescue Ranch. It's a constant influx of animals, food, bills, medicines, vet checks, operations, love and endless sleepless nights.

Please help us to keep up the momentum, continue to be able to rescue and care for Costa Rican wildlife, begin our breeding programs, continue our educational programs in the local schools and, I will end with a quote from a recent visitor, "I have been to other rescue centers around the world and this is one of the best. Their care for the animals is exquisite, the animals have space, enrichment and the place is sparkling clean."

Donations can be made to Pay Pal on our website, then please send us an e-mail to let us know who you would like to adopt, or what program your donation is helping.

Thank you from all of us, Leslie, Jorge and all the birds and animals of the Toucan Rescue Ranch and may you have a wonderful holiday season filled with joy and a great New Year.

Toucan babies and Sloth emergency

We received an urgent phone call last friday, a week ago and it was someone from our local fish and wildlife department asking if we would be willing to help with toucan babies that were in a tree that someone cut down.

Apparently they did not realize there was not only one nest, but TWO.

Poor parents when they flew back to realize that their nest tree was on the ground...there were two nests, one of Keel billed toucans, and another of Collared Aracaris, each with three babies in the nests.

So, they picked them up and drove 3 hours to bring them to us, and we placed them in a brooder in my kitchen! They were very dehydrated and not doing that well, but in a few days they woke up and are now doing great. We have been on 2 hour feedings from 6am until 11pm, and daily weights, overall an extremely exhausting job, but as my

Mother says, "rewarding"...indeed!

It's been 10 days and as you can see, they are making great progress!! If you would like to see a video of them at feeding time check us out on Youtube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VSGJUZWfb4

Update on Charly....took her first flight across the room and outside today!!! She was very excited, and is now starting to eat a bit on her own...still cannot use her feet very well, but really motivated!

We also received a phone call for a Sloth Emergency...this juvenile two toed sloth had been in a fight with another sloth, and possibly either fell from a great distance or was hit by a car...we don't really know, but he came in dehydrated and in pain. He refused to eat for four days, was in pain and refused to use his arms. He spent a day at the vets office, having x-rays, and good news nothing is broken. He finally started to eat and is more awake and energetic at night. He will use the one arm sometimes to hold food, but is not using is other arm. So, until he can use both arms again and climb successfully we cannot release him. The plan is to release him at our farm into the large Almond tree (his favorite leaf), but it might take awhile for him to heal. As you know, sloth's are sloooowwwww.

We named him Marley.

So if any of you have any brilliant fund raising ideas, please let me know!! As you can see, we are constantly expanding and will now need several new Toucan Flights!!

Thanks for your support!