Projects Abroad Update From the Taricaya Conservation Research Centre in Peru

Stuart Timson, Director of our incredible Peruvian Conservation Project gives us the news from the Amazon Rainforest:

The heavy rains promised by the storms earlier in January never materialized and so this wet season has been relatively dry thus enabling us to work without delays over the last couple of months. With the lodge filling up to near capacity and the willingness of the volunteers to get stuck in I have been able to advance much quicker than planned. A lot has been accomplished in little time and I will try and do justice to all the hard work and the latest advances at Taricaya.

Let’s start with the ongoing improvements in the animal release program and needless to say there are new residents in the project whilst old friends have been released back into the wild. Our nursery is starting to fill up and there were three new arrivals over the last few weeks. A first at Taricaya was an infant common squirrel monkey, whose continual chattering is now a familiar sound around the centre. Later the same week we also received another young paca and a dusky-headed parakeet chick. The nursery seems much more vibrant with the new additions and the place has also been brightened up by the artistic talents of some of our volunteers who painted numerous animals on the walls creating a much more colorful environment. Plans for April include new cages for the growing macaw populations as just two weeks ago we received two more chestnut-fronted macaws and a scarlet macaw.

Just as we received new guests last month we also released some old ones. Bianca the young paca was growing at a phenomenal rate and was quickly outgrowing her cage in the nursery. Pacas are naturally very independent animals so we decided to release her just in front of the lodge. Being nocturnal by nature she is now happily running around at night often startling volunteers on their way back from the dining room. She is continuing to grow and appears to be thriving with her new freedom.

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Moving on I feel that several sightings around the reserve are worthy of a mention not only for the amazing experiences they provided for the volunteers but also as indicators of a healthy ecosystem and reflecting our good work in the reserve. Anaconda Colpa had not been visited for a while and the first few groups to use it this year had some great sightings including a red-brocket deer, a tayra and two grisons. The last two species belong to the weasel family, Mustelidae, and the grison is an animal that we have only ever seen once before around the reserve. Last week a group of visiting tourists got a wonderful surprise when they reached the top canopy platform to see a margay standing in the kapok tree. This small arboreal cat is rarely seen as it is generally nocturnal but I am confident that this individual was the one that we released in 2004 about 600m from the canopy. Whether it is the same or not it is a wonderful sighting, one of the best at the canopy so far.

The farm project continues to flourish and in March we concentrated on our Heliconia project. We are already producing large quantities of flowers from our original plants but this month we were given a collection of many different species to grow and hopefully make nurseries should the flowers find a market. This meant that volunteers were clearing and planting a lot of the time and we now have several plots with neat rows of the different species. We now have to wait for the plants to react after the transfer from Puerto Maldonado and hope that the new species produce flowers with a good market value. Elsewhere at the farm the donkeys are recovering well from a stomach parasite and the volunteers are training them by riding them around some of the trails. One female is pregnant so she just follows along behind without a rider. The idea is to increase their stamina to enable them to work when fully recuperated.

As you can see a lot has been accomplished already this year and with a lodge full of industrious volunteers I expect to keep the work rate up over the coming months. It is an exciting time to be involved and there is plenty of work for everyone!!

Find Out About Our Conservation Project in Peru

www.projects-abroad.co.uk

Create a positive experience when teaching a bird to step up on your hand and learn more tips on training parrots in this free pet care video clip. Expert: Elizabeth Cantu Bio: Elizabeth Cantu has owned and been working with parrots since 1994. She has been active in captive parrot rescue and rehabilitation. Filmmaker: julio costilla
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Kakadu Complex: Super Fruit from Down Under

Many Australians know that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables is important for good health. But how many Australians known the health benefits of good old bush tucker?

A lot of people don’t know about just how good some Australian native wild foods are for you – even many Australians aren’t aware of the health benefits of some well known “bush tucker” plants that are prized as being rich in Vitamin C. To make Australians and others aware of the benefits of “bush tucker”, the nutritionist Dr George Kowalski developed the nutrient-rich fruit juice called “Kakadu Complex”: he wanted Australians and others to discover the health benefits of their indigenous fruits. Dr Kowalski researched the fruits and vegetables known to the Indigenous people and to lovers of “bush tucker” to come up with “Kakadu Complex”. He found five key fruits that were highly laden with the important antioxidant Vitamin C: kakadu plum, illawarra plum, mountain pepper, wild rosella and quandong. These five traditional Australian bush foods were combined with other antioxidant-rich fruits such as green tea, goji berry and cherry to make Kakadu Complex.

Kakadu Complex takes its name from Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandia). Kakadu plum has a number of other names, including “billygoat” (which doesn’t look quite so good on a package!), “murunga” and “gubinge”. The Kakadu plum looks a bit like a feijoa, being yellowish-green when it is ripe. This fruit is rich in the antioxidant Vitamin C, making it well and truly a “superfood”: Kakadu plum is reputed to have more than 100 times the Vitamin C content of oranges. Many Kakadu plums grow wild in the northern tropical parts of Australia, but commercial demand has grown since the antioxidant properties of these fruits were discovered, and proper plantations are now being established so the fruit can be grown and harvested sustainably.

The second indigenous ingredient in Kakadu Complex is Illawarra plum(Podocarpus elatus). This is also known as the “plum pine” or the “brown pine”. This is rich in the free-radical scavenger Vitamin C, which is why it has been chosen. The taste of Illawarra plum is very distinctive, being not quite like a plum and not quite like pine. The tree that Illawarra plums grow on is also used for timber and as an attractive evergreen plant in gardens.

Mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata, also known as T. aromatica) gives a peppery bite to Kakadu Complex. Mountain pepper is well known by lovers of “bush tucker”, as it can be used as a wild-growing spice that adds bite to savoury dishes as well as providing the eater with antioxidants.

Wild rosella (Hibiscus sabdariffa) sounds like a type of parakeet, but it’s a fruit, or else it wouldn’t have been included in Kakadu Complex! This plant is a relative to the ornamental tropical hibiscus flower, and is found in a number of tropical regions in Australian and elsewhere. Because wild rosella has so many health benefits, it is known and used in many traditional medicines and home remedies, and it is also used as an ingredient in herbal teas. The rich red of this fruit – and the bright colour indicates that it’s rich in phytochemicals – means that it is also used for natural colour in other food products. Wild rosella also contains pectin (great for digestion), which means that it was (and is) popular with makers of home-made jam.

The last indigenous ingredient in Kakadu Complex is quandong (Santalum acuminatum), which is also known as the native peach. This plant is a relative of the aromatic sandalwood, and the fruit shares some of the antibacterial properties of the essential oil derived from its better-known relative. Like the other Australian super fruits used for Kakadu Complex, it is rich in Vitamin C and other antioxidants.

This video was taken under CLOSE supervision. Please note that it is not necessarily typical for different species of birds to get along so well or to be so gentle, especially with such a difference in size. Please do not try this with your own parrots unless you know both of their personalities very well and are sure that they will not pose a risk to each other’s health and safety.

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Parakeet has a Fatty bump from the seeds?

My parakeet was sick and had a bump on the stomach so
I took her to the vet. It looks like it’s fatty bump etc
he recomended that I change diet, and I did. What now>?
My bird is slow and not like she was prior to getting this bump.
She has calcium, vitamins, grass, water, new food
will this go away or she will die?

Thanks for your help!

Throw Momma From the Train

Description
Get ready for a runaway comedy that’s right on track! “Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal are hilarious[and] Anne Ramsey is hysterically frightful” (The Hollywood Reporter) in this “wickedly screwball” (Playboy) laugh riot that won a Golden GlobeÂ(r) nomination* for DeVito and anOscarÂ(r) nomination** for Ramsey. With Rob Reiner and Oprah Winfrey on board for cameos, this fast-track comedy “will certainly make you laugh” (Newsweek)! Writing teacher Larry Donner (Crystal) and his student Owen Lift (DeVito) have a lot in common: the women in their lives are driving them mad! Larry’s ex-wife Margaret (Kate Mulgrew) stole his novel and made it her own bestseller, and Owen’s mother (Ramsey) is a monster! But Owen has a plan to kill both problems literally! He’ll murder Margaret while Larry sends Momma to her maker! But when Owen fulfills his end of the deal before telling his teacher, Larry’s left with no alibi and an outrageous obligation to knock off the nastiest old lady he’s ever met! *1987: Actor **1987: Supporting Actress

Can a parakeet get sick from smoke?

Can My Parakeet Get Sick From Me?

hey, imgetting over a sickness (virus) and i wanna play with my bird (a parakeet) but im afraid she’ll get sick. will she??

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I bought Forti-Diet Egg-Cite Bird Feed and gave it to my parakeets. The male is showing signs of illness by sleeping and puffing up. The poop seems a little watery when it dries on the cage floor. I don’t think there is an bird vet around. I did take the new food out and replaced it with the old bird feed. I was trying to fortify there diet the best that I could. Is there anything else that I can do?

How can I tell if a Parakeet is sick when buying from a Pet Store?

Will my 20 month old daughter get sick from eating parakeet food?

It just spilled all over the floor

How to tell if your parakeet is stressed and how can i prevent it from happening or how can i help the bird?

Hi, I bought a parakeet about 6 days ago and it seemed fine, would always jump around and climb around the cage. It seemed like it was normal and energetic but i didn’t think anything of this. So on the 4th day i went to a theme park for 2 days with my girlfriend and the vet assistant i left my bird with called and said it was laying on the bottom of the cage. then she called the pet store and asked to see if there was anything she could do but it suddenly died in her hands. I guess that it had diarrhea the day it died but before that it didn’t. Now the lady at the pet store told me that it could have been stressed an its immune system was low. Is this true? and how can I prevent this for my new one i got? also what are the signs of this?

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