On earth day plant a tree!For Earth Day KSTR wants to give this gift to you. How to plant a tree for Earth Day. If you just follow these simple instructions you can plant a tree for Earth Day!    Or let us do the hard work and plant a tree in our Rainforest!
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 This Months Success Story! Lavalamp arrived at KSTR in May 2017 after being severely electrocuted, after a lot of of hard work we were finally able to let here go free again at the same spot where she had been found. 🏝️🌿 It took the entire rescue, clinic and rehab team almost a year to get dear Lavalamp back in the right physical condition to release her. The past few weeks we have been observing her movements by night in our football field sized bootcamp area, where she seemed to make great progress in terms of muscle development, general movement and de-socializing from humans completely. Lots of love, from Lizzie in the jungle and Lavalamp from the wild, finally. Photo credit and written by @Lizziesworldadventures Read her entire post @Lizziesworldadventures  Kids Saving the Rainforest was featured in CityRefinery , a lifestyle blog following the adventures of a beautiful family who visited our wildlife sanctuary while in Costa Rica to learn about wildlife & how to protect it. Read about it here!  Last Chance to Donate for the Global Giving AcceleratorThere are only 2 days left in GlobalGiving’s Accelerator! Time is running out! Make your donation today! Thank you for your continued support and effort! Donate Today!  KSTR New Spokes kid Karma's March Article.Karma writes a monthly column in the magazine educating readers on important conservation issues and keeping tourists and locals alike up to date on what's going at KSTR. If you''d like to read her latest article, check it out here! http://www.quepolandia.com/ Read the Article!  Earth Day!
This Earth Day the community of Manuel Antonio & Quepos will celebrate in the most beautiful way ever experienced. A day that celebrates world-wide all efforts for enviromental protection and raises awareness for important causes incl. wildlife conservation, ending of plastic pollution, climate change and more. To celebrate we have united all local NGO´s and experts to offer the community a weekend filled with enviromental education, activities, work-shops, talks and much more. This event - you should not miss. Check the schedule to sign up for the activities you like to join. United we are - the following NGO´s, movements and specialist welcome you - Check out the event!  By Karma Casey Hello again! This is Karma from Kids Saving The Rainforest. This month I am going to talk a little bit about our beautiful oceans! Here at KSTR, we mostly spend our time rescuing local wildlife and planting trees, but we care about the ocean too! Recently, some of our volunteers pitched in helping a beach cleanup with another great local group, Operation Rich Coast. They organize lots of beach cleanups in lots of different areas, so if you would like to help them out on their next beach clean-up follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/operationrichcoast. I am a very lucky person because I get to go to the Manuel Antonio beach almost every day! One day I was walking, and I found a piece of coral on the ground. It was white, and it still had a little bit of purple on it. I learned at my school, Life Project Education, that white coral is dead coral. I wondered, was this piece of coral being killed by something that humans had done? Coral reefs are very important. They provide shelter, and food for thousands of animals, and they also protect the coastline from wave action, and storms. All the time, people are discovering coral reef plants and animals can provide important medicines for things like arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. More than one fifth of the world’s coral reefs have already been destroyed. At this rate, who knows what we are losing!  Climate change is another threat to coral reefs. Coral cannot live if the water temperature gets too high. A major issue is coral being killed by pollution. Many things are dumped into the ocean, such as oil, sewage, and run-off from farms. This pollution puts too much nitrogen in the water, which makes algae grow out of control, blocking sunlight from getting to the coral. How can you help coral reefs, you might wonder. Let me tell you! There are lots of ways you can help! If you are here on vacation, don’t buy coral as a souvenir to take home. Someone probably killed that coral and took it from the ocean to sell to you! If you scuba dive or snorkel, don’t touch the coral. It’s alive! It can easily break, or even get smothered by you stirring up sediment. Don’t leave your trash behind while you are at the beach. While you’re there, bring a couple of trash bags and do a beach clean-up! The trash you pick up will stay out of the ocean! There are more ways you can help protect coral reefs. Conserve water! The less water you use, the less wastewater runs off into the ocean! Walk or ride a bike, cutting down on burning fossil fuels. You can even plant a tree! Trees also reduce runoff, and they help fight climate change, which helps prevent coral bleaching. Kids Saving the Rainforest has a reforestation project in nearby Parrita. We have a goal of planting 94,000 trees. For more info on our tree planting, check out http://reforestationkstr.org. You can donate to plant a tree with us, helping us save the rainforest and coral reefs at the same time! Well, that’s all for this month readers. Thanks for your help protecting our planet! Don’t forget, if you find orphaned or injured wildlife that needs help, contact Kids Saving the Rainforest and we will come to the rescue! We have a brand new phone number just for animal emergencies! Contact us via WhatsApp at (506) 88-ANIMAL (8826-4625). RELEASE OF SQUIRREL MONKEYS AT KSTR
Kids Saving The RainforestKids Saving the Rainforest is in the process of establishing a reintroduction program for squirrel monkeys. Central American squirrel monkeys, also known as Saimiri oerstedi, are nearly extinct in Panama and are threatened in Costa Rica. There are only 4,000 individuals living in the wild, mostly in Manuel Antonio and Corcovado National Parks, located on Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. The low population of Central American squirrel monkeys makes reintroduction programs of these species very important to sustain the population and help reproduction. In order for the release to be successful, the monkey’s behavior and its predator responses are tested to see what chance the animal has to survive in the wild. The project requires sustained long term observations and research to ensure a successful reintroduction into the wild. One of our volunteers, Margarita Samsonova, is dedicating her time to observing candidates for release and has been testing their ability to respond to predators. The predator experiments were set on the monkeys six times using the scents of predators who are also rehabilitating in the rescue center. Scents of animals who hunt squirrel monkeys in Costa Rica such as dogs, white- faced monkeys, kinkajous and hawks were used along with their recorded vocalizations to test predator response. Pieces of cloth were placed in the predators’ enclosures overnight and then placed with the vocal recordings in the squirrel monkey enclosure the next day. A few of the squirrel monkeys had previously been kept as pets, so it is crucial to observe their reaction and behavior to get an idea of whether the release would be successful or not. It was observed that only four of the six candidates displayed “appropriate” behavior and reacted to the predator sound and smell the same as a squirrel monkey in the wild would. Two of those candidates didn’t approach the cloth with scent, meaning that they sensed the predators’ presence and didn’t want to risk danger. The other two squirrel monkeys, after some time observing the cloth, did get the food from it but retreated to eat it, which could mean that they saw no presence of predators and decided to quickly grab the food—a normal behavior of squirrel monkeys in the wild. The remaining two individuals came right to the cloth once it was put out; they didn’t react to any vocalizations and didn’t move from the cloth to eat the food, which could mean that those animals were domesticated and may have lost their natural instinct. The testing of behavior will continue until the beginning of April and the planned release is in mid-April. It is believed that pre-release monitoring and experiments will help to determine an estimation of which of the candidates would have high survival rates during reintroduction. We celebrate Women in ConservationTO MARK INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, WE CELEBRATE SOME OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN WHO'VE CHAMPIONED NATURE OVER THE YEARS. The world celebrates International Women's Day on 8 March – a day to mark women's achievements. International Women's Day is also an opportunity to fight globally for gender equality. We're celebrate the day by showcasing the accomplishments of some of the world's most amazing female environmental activists.  Jane Goodall: Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her over 55-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania in 1960.[4] She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. She has served on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project since its founding in 1996.[5][6] In April 2002, she was named a UN Messenger of Peace.  Berta Cáceres rallied her fellow indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam. She was murdered in her home on 3 March 2016. As an indigenous, environmental and human rights activist she knew well the risks she faced and said publicly that she knew she was top of the army's list of wanted human rights fighters. But, she added, it would never put her off fighting for "our territory".  Minerva Hamilton Hoyt: The wonders of Joshua Tree National Park draw in millions of visitors every year. But without the efforts of Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, the park — and more importantly, the diversity of cacti species within it such as the odd and endearing Joshua tree — might not exist today. Hoyt recognized the need to protect and preserve these desert environments, and her work included exhibitions of desert plants, founding the International Deserts Conservation League, and serving on a California state commission where she recommend proposals for new state parks including Death Valley, the Anza-Borrego Desert, and Joshua Tree. Her tireless campaigning on behalf of stoic and fragile desert landscapes led to President Roosevelt’s administration to designate more than 800,000 acres in the area as the Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936.  Celia Hunter: fought alongside Mardy and Olaus Murie to safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and became the first female president of a national conservation organization--The Wilderness Society. She played a major role in the passage of legislation that protected over 100 million acres in Alaska. On her dying day she wrote a letter to Congress urging the protection of the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling. Conservation would benefit if more women were actively involved. That is the message from TBA Director Dr. Rosie Trevelyan
How did wildlife bridges come to Costa Rica you might ask? We at Kids Saving The Rainforest have the story for you. · In the year 2000, a group called Amigos Del Monos came to Kids Saving the Rainforest (KSTR) and told us that they could not get ICE, (the Electric Company), to help them put up monkey bridges. They felt that KSTR could get their attention. · Luckily, we could do so and the KSTR Wildlife Bridge Program was started. In the beginning, KSTR had a team to put up the bridges as you can see in a picture of Lenin putting up a bridge in 2002. · Much later ICE started working hand in hand with KSTR. Since then KSTR gives presentations to ICE’s environmental workers from around the country about the bridges. We also taught their workers how to save wildlife up on the electrical wires.  · To date KSTR has put up over 170 bridges · Currently there are 130 functioning bridges that we maintain monthly with the help of ICE · The other bridges have come down because of human encroachment (development) · How do we choose where to put the bridges? We put up a bridge wherever wildlife has been electrocuted or hit by a car so that the wildlife can cross busy roads, and to connect with other troops for mating purposes, even when the corridors through which they travel have been fragmented · With ICE in our monthly monitoring we make sure the branches of trees don’t grow into live wires near bridges · The rope and clamps for the bridges are very costly and each bridge costs up to $100! · Why do we use blue ropes? Very easy answer, that was the only color that the hardware store had! · KSTR has done studies and surveys of the bridges, including camera traps that have shown over 22 different species crossing the bridges · At the last official count, there was estimated to be only 1200 of Squirrel (Titi) monkeys left in the world. · Currently our unofficial data by Lenin Roseles states that we now have over 5000 Titi Monkeys!  · KSTR is very grateful to have helped make saving this species possible. · The Squirrel monkey had been on the Critically Endangered Red List since 1997 (All this subspecies lives in our area) · Due to the bridges, reforestation, and conservation, the Squirrel Monkey is no longer on the Critically Endangered Red List. · Janine Licare, one of KSTR’s co-founders, won the 2004 Eco-Hero Award and $500 for KSTR’s Wildlife Bridge Project! · Janine watched a baby sloth die in the arms of KSTR’s Vet, Dr. Pia Martin, because the baby needed oxygen and KSTR couldn’t afford a tank. She immediately used the money to buy an oxygen tank, which is still in use in our clinic today, saving lives. · If you want to sponsor a bridge or donate, please contact us at: Jennifer@kstr.org so that you too can save the wildlife in our area.  Thanks so much for reading this! Please contact us if you want more information. You can also take a tour of our Wildlife Sanctuary by writing to chip@kstr.org or calling 4070-0340. 100% of the proceeds go to save the rainforest. So please help us to save the rainforest by taking our tour and learning about the individual stories of how each animal got rescued by KSTR! Stay tuned next month for “Karma Saves the Rainforest”, where our new resident spokes kid Karma will tell you all about what’s going on at Kids Saving the Rainforest. November 2017
By Jennifer Rice PhD President of Kids Saving the Rainforest Tamandua mexicana (Anteater) The anteater belongs to the Myrmecophagidae family, which basically means "ant eaters", and are related to sloths and armadillos. They are not very large, they measure between 50 and 80 centimeters, if we add the tail they can measure up to one and a half meters. The long tail and the "trunk" give an elongated appearance to the body that is cream colored with a black spot as a vest. They are mainly arboreal so their body has specific adaptations for this type of life. Its tail, serves as a prehensile, this serves as a safety harness while they are climbing or balancing on the branches. Their legs have very powerful claws they help them to hold on to wood of the trees, to lift the bark off the trees and feed on their favorite food: ants and termites. When they are on the ground they are a bit clumsy. Although you can see them both day and night, if you seem to enjoy more hours of darkness. They are not aggressive animals, so when they see your first instinct is to run to climb a tree as high as possible. They are solitary, so you will never see more than one, except when it comes to a female carrying her young on her back; because of this peculiar way of transporting their offspring, they only have one baby per year. They live in humid, dry, secondary, riparian forests (near rivers), mangroves, savannas ... from Mexico to the northwest of Peru, from sea level to 2000 meters of altitude, although they are more common at altitudes of less than 1000 meters. The most important hazards for them are roads, fires and habitat loss; Other problems smaller, but also serious is: hunting in rural Ecuador by the popular belief that they are capable of killing domestic dogs and in southern Mexico their hunted to sell them as pets. Please help protect these amazing animals by helping us save the habitat they live in.  Empowering Youth Can Save Our Oceans In Nov of 2016, One More Generation founders Olivia (14) and her brother Carter (16) launched their global OneLessStraw Pledge Campaign in an effort to help clean up our environment and educate people on the harms of using single use plastic straws. Some interesting facts: Did you know that in America, we are using an estimated 500,000,000 plastic straws every single day? That is the equivalent to 1.6 straws for every man, woman and child living in this country every single day. If you were to take an entire day's worth of plastic straws, they would fill up over 127 school busses. That is like over 46,400 school buses full of one-time use plastic straws that are ending up in our landfills and waterways every year. Sick isn't it?  Since the launch of the campaign we have had over 3,000 people from over 46 countries around the world sign our on-line pledge form stating that “they promise not to use a single use plastic straw for at least 30-days”. Almost 350 partners from around the world have also joined their OneLessStraw Partners Page and helped to share their initiative with their fans. We have had schools, restaurants, resorts and even zoos and aquariums sign-on showing their support for this important issue. If your organization would like to be listed as a partner, just email us your logo and website link you want associated with the logo for consideration. Olivia and Carter realized that reducing our plastic footprint could be very easy to do; we just need to say 'NO' to single-use plastics such as straws. To encourage everyone to stop using single use plastic straws, we have partnered with the folks at Simply Straws, who has a great offer: they will send everyone who signs our OneLessStraw pledge a coupon for a free glass reusable drinking straw (excluding postage) to help them stay plastic straw free forever. We are asking schools across the nation and even in select countries to have their students participate in the program. Schools signing on are listed as partners on our Partners Page and on our interactive Google map. Students are then given the opportunity to sign the pledge stating they promise not to use a single plastic straw for at least 30-days. Students are also encouraged to speak with their favorite restaurant and ask them to participate by signing a pledge stating they promise to only hand out straws upon request for 30-days. We even have cool campaign buttons for servers to wear which helps explain the campaign to their customers. The buttons are FREE (just pay postage) and are now available in nine languages If you have a school/district or restaurant you would like to speak with about taking the pledge, just email us (info@onemoregeneration.org) and we will help you work out the details. The OneLessStraw.org website has lots of resources and a cool interactive Google map which will tracks the progress of the campaign around the country and even around the world. The very first restaurant to join the campaign was North Beach Bar and Grill in Tybee Island GA and they are already reporting that their staff loves the idea and even the customers are gladly participating. Check out the testimonial they sent. Message from Kathryn Williams: The pins are a hit! Thank you again for including us in this project. Progress is being made - I had lunch with 7 people today at the Grill. Only 1 of the 8 asked for a straw and was then shamed by the rest of the group:) As you can see, the campaign is designed to be fun and produce long-lasting results. We encourage everyone to download the pledge forms (also available in Spanish) from our website or complete the online version. Thank you in advance for helping us make sure this campaign is a huge success by sharing with everyone you know and please be sure to email us your signed pledge form today. “Remember, anybody can make a difference… if we can, you can too.”  After 3 and a half months of hard work and dedication, today we say goodbye to Antorcha, this Howler Monkey (Alouatta palliata) who, after suffering an electrocution, was left with all her left side paralyzed. With medications, physical therapy, good nutrition and a lot of attention, Torch again had movements and today he is able to use the arm almost perfectly, he can walk, climb, grab what he likes with his hands, but his leg is still very weak and the possibility of one day returning to the forest is very small. Even if his physical condition has improved, what worried us most in the last days was his emotional and psychological condition. The congos are very social animals and life in a group is essential for their well being, isolation can lead to a depression picture and for this reason we decided to move it to another center where there are other monkeys that like her, most likely will not return to nature, but they will be your new family. We hope that the transition is smooth for her and that she can soon be happy and adapted to her new home and her new family. Many thanks to Sibu Wildlife Sanctuary, who accepted to receive Antorcha and provide the quality of life necessary for their well-being, together with others of the same species. Despues de 3 meses y medio de mucho esfuerzo y dedicación, hoy nos despedimos de Antorcha, esta Mona Aulladora (Alouatta palliata) que tras sufrir una eletrocución, quedó con todo su lado izquierdo paralizado. Con medicaciones, terapia física, buena alimentación y mucha atención, Antorcha volvió a tener movimientos y hoy es capaz de utilizar el brazo casi que perfectamente, puede caminar, escalar, agarrar lo que le guste con las manos, pero su pierna aun sigue muy débil y la posibilidad de que vuelva algun dia a el bosque es muy pequeña.
Aun que su condición física tenga mejorado, lo que más nos preocupava en los ultimos dias era su condición emocional y psicológica. Los congos son animales muy sociales y la vida en grupo es esencial para su bien estar, el aislamento se les puede llevar a un cuadro de depresión y por este motivo decidimos trasladarla a otro centro donde existen otros monos que como ella, muy probablemente no volveran a la naturaleza, pero van a ser su nueva familia. Esperamos que la transición sea suave para ella y que pronto pueda estar feliz y adaptada a su nueva casa y su nueva familia. Muchas gracias a Sibu Wildlife Sanctuary, quienes aceptarón recibir a Antorcha y brindarle la calidad de vida necesaria para su bien estar, junto a otros de su misma espécie.  Kids from around the World are helping us save the rainforest.
The students from Primary 6 and 7 from Rasharkin Primary School, Northern Ireland 10 donated trees to our reforestation project in Costa Rica. Read the lovely papers they wrote on Deforestation. Follow their great example and help the rainforest. |
AuthorBy the A.M. Costa Rica staff Archives
March 2018
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