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!

Pictorial Update!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!
We have been super busy all month with guests and our rescued animals...here is a pictorial update!



Millie is 4!! She had a very special day outside and had almond leaves and loved the nice weather. After this she got to take a nice nap in the hammock with slothmom Leslie!!

A friend of Jorge's at the farm called and his dogs had attacked a mother Whistling duck who was sitting on eggs, so he collected her up with the eggs and turned them over to Jorge to bring home!
Mom is fine, but with all the commotion she would not sit on the eggs, so I placed them under a chicken, then in the incubator, and with all the changes in humidity there were problems with the hatch. It is very complicated, but I will tell you that after much hesitation I decided to assist the hatch, it's a long process, started at 7pm and ended at 2am....several hatched, but died a day later, so we have the brave survivors and Jorge has been playing Mom to them!! Ralph our whistling duck is very excited to finally have company, he cruises by their cage every couple of hours to check on them as well. Mom is going back to the farm soon to be released there.

Our smallest parrot rescue last fall turned out to be another Crimson fronted parrot. It took so long for the red to appear we thought she might be a green conure instead! She is doing great, but is very small compared to the other crimson parrots. She likes to visit with our guests.
We have been planting more hummingbird, butterfly gardens and noticed one day this very small hummer, I thought it was a moth at first! But we are now very excited and proud to report that the small one is actually a Scintillant Hummingbird!
They are the smallest and are only found here in Costa Rica and western Panama. In the photo you cannot see the brilliant orange gorget, but it is there. They only weigh 2-2.3 grams. They also make a buzzing noise with their wings.


A little hard to see, but look closely in this hole and you can see a Mottled Owl nesting! I found her in town on the edge of the river!! will keep you posted on this one.

Georgie is growing up quickly, he has also been enjoying the great weather outdoors!

Many of you know the sad story of Lorita, well she is doing great and this is her taking a huge bath in one of our first rainstorms!

We have had a visiting toucan for the last several weeks. He is feeding one of our females and fighting with the males! We put up a feeder in the tree for him and he is also eating native fruits from the trees. We are not sure if he is wild or someones escaped pet! They are not from this area, so I am guessing on a pet, but he can fly really well! It's fun to have him around!

Farm report: Lots of woodpeckers, this beautiful Chestnut-colored woodpecker loves the papaya, and I came across this three toed sloth with a tiny baby (see the little lump on her stomach and the tiny leg holding on) I think this is Hershey who I have seen many times, last year also with a baby....she's a good Mom.

Well, that is our update for now! Happy Easter and Spring to everyone and thanks so much for your support, we hope to start the cage for Isadora the monkey in July :)

Thank You- School Donations!

A HUGE Thank You to many Schools who have helped us with Fund Raising!

First I would like to thank the Roots and Shoots program in Shanghi China, Pinghe International School for their kind donation towards building a nice habitat for Issy the Spider Monkey...we are closer to our goal because of their efforts. They painted these tote bags before Christmas and sold them!

Thanks so much! I am using my Owl bag now and everywhere I go people ask me about it!!

Lincoln School here in Costa Rica, has been a great support! They have attended our educational programs and also collected newspapers, and donations. In Feb. for Valentines Day the first graders purchased nuts for all the parrots, and made these cute boxes decorated for the birds filled with nuts. It's such a joy to see the children so excited and enthused about our program! Plus, some of the other classes are signed up to attend.


Java our cockatoo LOVED the boxes!

Last year two teachers from Whitney M Young Magnet High School in Chicago came to visit The Toucan Rescue Ranch, they went home and started the first Skype program with students! We were able to speak with the students, show some of our animals and answer questions all via Skype. The classes went on to do some fund raising and also sent us a generous gift, towards the enclosure for Issy.

Thanks also to several of our Bed and Breakfast Clients for their kind donations, tours and also Cornerstone Builders in Atlanta, the Doyle Family and Di Lorenzo Family.

In other news it's breeding season and one of the little Emerald Toucanets gave us a huge scare the other day when we thought she might be egg bound...well later that night she laid this huge egg,

So we carefully transfered it back to the nest log and she seems to be fine!

The female Mottled owl has been laying eggs, I put one under a brooding hen and the hen cracked it. So, now with this egg I am going to try the incubator, but I really think they are not fertile since both her partners are lacking wings...I will keep you posted!

Little Georgie is finally weaned from milk but not his fingers!

Tico Times Article! Quilla is famous!

Quilla is a famous porcupine! She made the front cover of The Tico Times! They came to visit and spend an afternoon with us and wrote a wonderful article about the work that we are doing with the Rescue Program and the Bed and Breakfast it was so much fun to see the article and receive the huge surprise that Quilla was on the cover! We have had many calls and e-mails as a result of the article, so we are very pleased.

Indoor Rainforest at the California Academy of Sciences.

A few days after the article came out we were scheduled to be in San Francisco for my father's 80th Birthday party! We had a very nice family reunion and although the weather was cold and raining, made the rounds to all the famous restaurants and had a great time. We even were able to tour the California Academy of Sciences, where my mother is a docent and see their indoor rainforest and large aquariums.

One of the highlights of the SF trip was to schedule an extra day to finally meet Jenny Papka and her friend who run Native Bird Connections nativebirds.org in Walnut Creek. Jenny has been helping me with the owls for several years now and we finally met! It was great to see the birds in their care, the set up, how they are organized, the enclosures and tour the property! She does an incredible job with all the animals, and conducts great educational programs...she even has a few snakes she uses in the programs. Very brave!

We are so appreciative of her help with our owls...there are days I am e-mailing her morning and afternoon reports when a new owl comes into our program. Below are some of the lovely creatures she is caring for. We cannot decide on any favorite, they are all beautiful!

On our way home we stoped by The Dallas World Aquarium and Zoo. They also have been great help and I am frequently calling or e-mailing their veterinarian. They have helped me with baby toucans, diets and even my dogs! Their toucan collection is probably the largest in the world. They are constantly expanding and have an incredible collection of birds, fish and animals! Below are some
highlights of the very quick layover in Dallas.

Baby penguin born at the aquarium, baby monkey and a jaguar enjoying an ice block of frozen fish!



Back home now...I really missed everyone! It's a sunny day, all the birds are outside and the aracaris are bathing. I took a few minutes to walk down to our creek to see if I could find the little pygmy owl I had seen before I left, and sure enough he was there, with a mate!! I found two holes in logs where they might be nesting....so, I will have to keep a close watch on them...of course I am hoping that one of these owls is the little one I released a few months ago.

Aracaris bathing!

Jou Jou keeps growing!

Update!

Una is doing really well, it's hard to tell from this photo, but she now has many more feathers and her green is brighter! She talks non stop and the vet. has fallen in love with her, so she has found a good home with them!

The other day we were at the farm, the water apples were fruiting and everyone loves them! The tree was full of toucans, chachalacas, and next door were the monkeys! It was great fun to watch, and we collected up a bunch to bring home to our toucans here!

New Arrival! A very nice chesnut mandible toucan showed up in the patio of this nice family, who took her in and fed her. They called Minae and I went to pick her up. She is totally socialized, and is the first toucan that I have received in fairly good health! She probably was someone's pet and she escaped and was lost. She is adjusting well and seems to like the other birds, so we will integrate her into a flight soon.

Lin Loves the River...it was very hot at the farm!!

We also cut up a log that had fallen down to bring back home to make nest logs for the toucans.

These are the collared aracaris that were sitting up in my tree all day visiting our crew!