"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted" - Aesop
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man. -- Charles Darwin
Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test, consists of its attitude toward those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect, human kind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. -- Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Kindness should never go unnoticed, but it often does. The smallest kindness can be a 'hello' or even a smile. I have always been intrigued by Charles Darwin. One of my many dreams is one day to visit the Galapagos Islands. Man must love all creatures. Man must love nature. It is my hope that in addition to a hobby which can be self esteem able, is that you find a passion with nature or connect with nature. This connection will bring you a new serenity that you have never before experienced. Although Rick and I belong to United Plant Savers, National Bee Organizations, Local Bee Organizations and Save the Bees, we have not fully committed to another cause. One of our causes was better health care by volunteering in Cherry Grove as their medical director and he as a board member. It worked, but then one day it didn't So we moved on. Since Gregory's passion for animals and his applications to vet schools, we have to work on another cause. Below is another project we might contribute too, in addition to the Belize Zoo.
Find an organization that involves nature whether animals, insect, plants or even trees and become passionate about it. It will change your perception on life.
As proud fathers we are so blessed. Gregory was lucky enough to be invited to come and help out at Wildtracks. This is a wonderful rehabilitation center focusing on Primates and Manatees. It is located in Sarteneja, a very small town in Northern Belize along a lagoon. He left the Belize Zoo with a variety of animals and Sue Matola and staff to volunteer at Wildtracks. He barely escaped Hurricane Ernesto this past week.
Rick and I haven't heards much about the Manatee volunteer project and all aspects of manatee care. Reading about this project puts smiles on our faces to know he is helping with a worthwhile conservation and rehabilitation project of manatees. What is a manatee ?
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammal sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis), the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), and the West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis). They measure up to 13 feet (4.0 m) long, weigh as much as 1,300 pounds (590 kg), and have paddle-like flippers The Manatee Rehabilitation Centre was established in 1999 by Wildtracks, under the Belize Marine Mammal Stranding Network and the National Manatee Working Group, to care for orphaned or injured manatees found in Belizean waters. Since the establishment of the temporary facilities at Wildtracks in 1999, the majority of manatee calf rescues have resulted in successful rehabilitation back to join the wild populations of the Gales Point Wildlife Sanctuary (Southern Lagoon), after an average of 18 months care. This is a very special program. Unfortunately sometimes the manatees are badly injured from boats and despite all efforts they die. Post‐release monitoring has been under the Wildlife Trust manatee tracking programme.
I do not know about manatees to have a feeling for them, but primates are another story. While in college I worked with monkeys, lemurs and a chimpanzee. In addition to the manatees Gregory is volunteering at the Wildtracks wildlife rehabilitation center ( Primate Rehabilitation) is located in the north east corner of Belize outside Sarteneja on the shore of the Corozal Bay. This is the same region where the care, rehabilitation, and pre-release of the black howler monkeys is occurring; the final release site for the howler monkeys is slightly to the southeast in the Fireburn Reserve, which is managed by Wildtracks. Black howler monkeys have not been living wild in this area since the 1940’s (personal communication. Paul Walker, Wildtracks); although they have not recently been native to the northern part of Belize, they did historically inhabit this area, and chances for successful rehabilitation and release in this region are very promising. Rick and I await photos from Wildtracks. I have also been loking at the possibility of adopting a monkey
Wildtracks headquarters doing a lot of animal care and other husbandry based tasks with the animals they have there (ie: socializing the monkeys, cleaning, feeding them, making enrichment, propping enclosures, and building new enclosures). They have a total of 9 primates at Wildtracks right now, 8 Black Howler Monkeys and 1 Black Handed Spider Monkey. Dudley, a 5 year old Howler monkey
Until tomorrow...
Miss you Gregory...
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