A devastating loss, but we remain thankful for the time we had
With the heaviest of hearts, we share the news that the orphaned baby uakari monkey that we rescued a few months ago was bitten by a snake and did not survive. She had two bite marks on her hand that looked to be from a bothrops (pit viper) species. This type of snake is easily lethal to humans, and her little body was no match for the venom. She fought for as long as she could but did not make it through the night.
She had otherwise been growing stronger and healthier, exhibiting increasing confidence in climbing high up into the trees on her own, and exchanging cautious preliminary communications with the uakari family group that we hoped she would eventually re-join. She was inquisitive, playful and brought joy and love to our hearts during this time of extreme hardship and challenge.
After all of this progress, her passing feels like a crushing defeat. I’ve tried to write this post many times with great difficulty, overwhelmed with sadness and feeling as though writing and posting about it would cement the finality of the situation, somehow betraying the impossible hope that this isn’t the reality. We’ve all been heartbroken about it. But we’re doing our best to take stock of the accomplishments that we can count as great successes during this particularly tumultuous year, from our turtle rescue work to the fact that we’ve managed to continue our conservation operations with bare bones staff and resources during the pandemic (with donations from our wonderful Tapiche family and friends!). We recognize how incredible it was to even be given the opportunity to nurture and observe this baby uakari for the three months that she was with us, and we learned fantastic things about the species that we never would have known otherwise.
We share here some last photos of the beautiful creature that brightened a very dark time. Some of these were taken just the day before she was bitten. We honor the lessons we learned from her presence and hold her memory closely in our hearts.
