 For many visitors the most important reason for coming to Iquitos is, that they want to see the famous wildlife of the Amazon. Jaguars, monkeys, macaws, tapirs and tucans etc. are definitely
part of the image of the Amazon region. And it's not just the image, these animals really do exist in the Peruvian Rainforest, but whoever has spent some time in the jungle knows how difficult it is to spot them. It's not only due to their natural shyness, but also to the destruction of their habitats that many animals, especially mammals, are actually disappearing. Some people blame it on the natives who hunt wild animals for food or to sell parts of them. I'd just ask them to remeber that the Amazonian tribes were able to live with and from nature for thousands of years and who is really to blame if, for example, a native kills a Saki monkey because somebody in town will buy its tail to use it as a duster?
Ignorance is the big enemy of conservation and in the Amazon we have two different types of ignorance:
That one of the people living here, who have been hunting wild animals for many generations - but don't know how long it takes for example, for a monkey to become sexually mature. People on the riverside don't have the opportunity to read an article about endangered animals or watch a programm on the discovery channel. Education, especially in the countryside, is very poor. Can you imagine that people living in the Amazon have no idea, for example, about the life cycle of a butterfly, that many think a butterfly hatches out of a flower, and a caterpillar is a worm? If you don't know about an animal, or its life cycle - why should you care for it? We are trying to fight that kind of ignorance by working with schools and teachers, showing and explaining to them the wonders they've got and that it's worth conserving them. But the other ignorance that endangers Amazonian wildlife is that of tourists or even people who live off of tourism, like owners of lodges or hotels. 
Foreigners
are often offered wild baby animals - monkeys, sloths, ocelots - and as those orphans (to be able to get young animals you've got to kill its mother first) are mostly likely skinny and in bad condition, the foreigners feel pity for them and buy them.
During the last few weeks I've met 3 different foreigners who told me they had come to "Save the Amazon animals", buying them at Belen, from hostals or hunters, with the idea of releasing them. I'm sure those people really love animals and have the best intentions, BUT, don't they realize that by buying a wild animal they are actually making the market - giving people a reason to shoot animals to sell their babies as pets? Besides, it's almost impossible to release rescued animals back into the wild as they have lost fear of people, and would come too near. Peruvian laws are actually very clear about the subject, it says it's illegal to have wild animals unless you're registered as an official breeder, a zoo, or a custody centre. But there is almost no control and unfortunately even some owners of hotels or lodges support illegal animal trade by buying whatever wild animal is offered to them - as an attraction for the tourists. The worst of it - although these places would have the means to be able to cure and maintain animals, they either put them into tiny cages or simply release them, which in real terms means killing them, as an infant an animal hasn't yet learned how to protect itself or find its own food. 
Pilpintuwasi is an official custody centre for wild animals and we've got several endangered species, for example a red Uacary monkey, who's been with us for almost 4 years. We would love to give him a mate, but as we don't want to support illegal trade, we cannot 'ask' hunters to get us a female.
When some visitors told me a month ago that their lodge had bought 2 red Uacary babies I tried to get in touch with the owner because I know how delicate those monkeys are. When I met the owner at the Yellow Rose I was surprised that he didn't even know what kind of animals his staff had bought. In discussing the matter he argued that it's better to buy and release those animals, whereas I responded that the animals shouldn't be bought at all - the owner finally agreed to give us the female of the Red Uacaries. I went to the office at least 6 times, but the "woman in charge of the animals" was never there. When some guests of that lodge visited Pilpintuwasi and told me that they had seen the monkey babies sitting on the ground and being very calm, I was worried - monkey babies shouldn't be calm!! But only last week the woman in charge of the animals came back from Lima and I was able to ask her for the female. At the beginning the lady even denied the existence of the Red Uacaries at the lodge, but finally she admitted that the little monkeys had died - and nobody had even known that this species is in danger of extinction! That's just ONE example of how good intentions mixed with ignorance leads to disaster. 
Besides INRENA's (National Institute of Natural Resources), Pilpintuwasi is the only official rescue centre in Loreto. We don't get any support from the government nor other organisations, so we cannot recieve all the animals people want to drop at our farm, but we take monkeys, other small mammals, birds and reptiles. It's neither easy nor cheap to raise injured and/or baby animals as they need special milk, vitamins, minerals and veterinarian care, not to mention a lot of love, time and space.
At Pilpintuwasi we cannot save species but we can save individuals, and our main interest, besides giving rescued creatures good quality life, is teaching our visitors to know and respect wild animals. By doing this educational work we hope to help diminishing illegal animal trade in the future. And what can YOU do when someone offers you a wild animal or you see one in bad condition? 1. First of all - make it clear that you don't want to buy it. 2. If you speak Spanish tell the person that you'd rather see animals in their natural habitat and that it's illegal to have wild animals in Peru. 3. If you've seen a place where they have wild animals in bad conditions, call INRENA at 223207 or the ecological police - they are obliged to check and eventually confiscate 4. If you have already purchased some wild animal contact us so we can give you some information or maybe find a place for it. 5. If you feel obliged to buy some animal because you see it's in a very bad state - pay only what you think was spent on food, or the value of a meal so that no profit is made - and then get in contact with us or INRENA. Gudrun Sperrer Pilpintuwasi Padre Cocha/Rio Nanay 99 32 999 Website: www.amazonanimalorphanage.org |