How Did I Get Here? A Personal Journey to Primate Conservation
I vividly remember how it felt to be a young girl, craning my neck in the jungles of Costa Rica. I would carefully inspect the movement of the trees, eyes straining for the tell-tale swaying of branches. I recall the awe I felt walking through the doors of the first rescue center I volunteered at and developing my first tangible connections with the rehabilitation world. I curiously watched interns work hands-on with the animals and decided that I would return to complete an internship myself. I remember how it felt to hold my Wildlife Conservation Biology diploma and how eagerly I anticipated the beginning of my professional career.
My love story with Golden-Mantled Howler Monkeys began in my childhood, but it wasn’t until I returned to Costa Rica as an adult that it became incredibly personal. Toucan Rescue Ranch’s Release Site, where I am now the manager, sits in Sarapiquí, Costa Rica. This habitat is on the border of fragmented forests and rural agricultural lands. There are a couple of wild troops whose territory includes our site, and I quickly became enamored with observing their dynamics in the wild. Over time, I have witnessed firsthand how climate change and human activities have impacted howler monkey populations. Humans have permanently altered their ecosystem, disrupted their paths to food sources, and negatively affected these monkeys' survival.
In one tough, dry season, we saw a steep rise in cases of injured and orphaned howler monkeys. We received 15 orphaned juveniles from the Sarapiquí area in a short period. Some came with dog bite wounds, others with burns from electrocution injuries, and many were so young they survived only a few days. Almost every single one of them was found on the ground, clinging to their dead mother below a family that watched from the canopies.
I remember looking around the clinic and feeling a tightness in my chest. I continued observing the wild families with a tinge of sadness, thinking about how the arriving infants had gotten robbed of the opportunity to grow up in the wild, where they belonged. Filled with frustrated helplessness, I feared that my team and I wouldn’t be enough to undo the damage being done. However, it is not in my nature to wallow in desperation or to be halted by fear of failure. Fueled with love and determination, I was willing to do everything in my power to fulfill the needs of these orphans. This was the beginning of my most important project.
I reached out to rescue centers around the country and worldwide to learn as much as possible to develop the foundations of the project. I dedicated myself to researching everything I could about the specific biology of howler monkeys and their natural history. As a proud Costa Rican and a contributing member of my local community, I am happy to say that I have officially started the Saving Howler Monkeys Together Program. As head of this program, it has been the most significant honor of my professional career to be a fundamental part of creating the rehabilitation protocols. This initiative is a continuous collaborative effort where my team and I constantly analyze and reassess the rehabilitation and release strategies that have worked for different facilities. Learning how to create the best chance for a successful reintroduction back into the wild for the young howler monkeys in the program has been an adventure beyond my wildest dreams. However, there is still so much work to be done.
Unfortunately, there is a massive gap in the literature when looking at the overview of primate release success rates. It is an area that many conservation programs worldwide are working on, but it’s a complicated process and one we know so little about. In the last general overview of mammalian releases, it was reported that only 26% of reintroduction projects were deemed successful. What does this mean? The simple fact is that primate release programs need to be more of a priority. Success rates are not high; it is a vastly under-published subject, and we don’t have many well-documented examples. We need to be investing more research into changing that. Otherwise, we’re looking at a future where primates are conserved only in captivity.
I have worked on the frontlines of wildlife conservation long enough to know there is so much work to do in wildlife rehabilitation. My dream is to make a future where releasing primates successfully back into the wild becomes a reality. Working at Toucan Rescue Ranch alongside accredited biologists and veterinarians worldwide has inspired me to continue pursuing my passion for primate conservation.
Over the years, I have learned much about rehabilitation and the conservation world. But I’ve learned even more about myself: what I can handle, what I am capable of, and how to survive in a world that takes advantage of someone’s passion and dedication far too quickly. Nothing about this has been easy. Everything about this has been worth it. I believe that continuing to push forward in this work will provide me with the education and skills to make an even more significant impact on primate conservation.
