This Centre is located in the Ecuadorian rainforest.  The Centre was established in 2006 by a Quechua family and works in rescuing, rehabilitating and when possible releasing animals back to their natural environment.

The Centre works in partnership with the Ecuadorian Environmental Police (UPMA) and the Ministry of Environment in the fight against trafficking, abuse, capture and hunting of wild animals.   

Animal welfare is not a high priority for many Ecuadorians and many don't understand the problems associated with keeping wild animals as domestic pets. In captive situations, they become depressed and sometimes aggressive and, as a result, they are neglected and abused. Many of the animals arriving at the Centre have been mistreated with either physical and/or psychological injuries.   

The rescue Centre covers an area of over 100 hectares on land belonging to a Quechua family whose ancestral line stems back hundreds of years. As a family-run rescue Centre, they have a great understanding of the local community, the culture and the plight of their native wild animals. 

There are currently over 70 animals at the Centre which include: Primates (Squirrel Monkeys, Titi and Capuchin Monkeys), Mammals (Peccaries, Coati, Tayra, Kinkajou, Margay), Reptiles (Tortoises) and Birds (Turkeys, Parrots and Macaws).

The Centre is dedicated to helping the local community in many ways, not only in contracting their local services to help the local economy, but also in educational programs, working closely with the local school to teach children the importance of environmental issues.

WORK CONTENT:
Your work will be varied and you'll be involved in some or all of the following:

• Day-to-day care of the animals

• Cutting up fruit and preparation of diets,

• Feeding the animals

• Helping new arrivals adjust to the Centre

• Measuring and weighing the animals

• Studying their behaviour

• Protecting the more vulnerable animals

• Observing and monitoring those animals that have been released

• helping in the development of programmes on rehabilitation and release of animals

• General maintenance and cleaning

• Construction work, such as helping to repair and build new enclosures for the animals

• Daily hikes to pick fruit for the animals and also to harvest yucca, corn, sugar cane or cocoa.

• Enclosure Enrichment: Some of the most satisfying work you can do will be to provide some enclosure enrichment and mental stimulation. You can use your creativity to provide useful “toys” and games for them and animals generally take great interest and delight in new areas to explore. We provide you with our in-house guide of Suggestions for Enclosure Enrichment and you may be able to use or adapt some of the suggestions for the different types of animals.

Additional activities:
The Centre is dedicated to finding ways to provide the chance of a good quality of life for the animals in their care. This includes basic things, such as

• providing them with a suitable diet, which in so many cases they have never had during their time in captivity.

• Where possible, to run effective, science-based rehabilitation programmes to help in the process of returning them to their natural environment.

You will also be able to help with these observation and enrichment projects. For example, most animals living in the wild spend a big part of their day foraging and searching to find food or safe shelter. These are the types of behaviours that have to be encouraged so that animals at the Centre do not lose these skills.

You can help by using your imagination to build a toy or devise a game for the animal and then observe how it uses it and in what way it benefits the animal. This work is invaluable to the animals because it helps to relieve the boredom of their captivity and to maintain their natural predatory instincts.

In addition to animal welfare and care, you can also be involved in the local Environmental Education Programme. Here you'll help prepare lessons on specific environment issues which are given twice a month at a local school located close to the Centre. The children are aged between 6 and 12 years and in these classes the idea is to help the younger generation to understand the importance of ecosystems as a whole (including all living beings who form part of them) and the role of natural resources (the ones we need to survive and yet, at the same time, are being destroyed because of bad or non-existent management.

WORK SCHEDULE:
You'll work Monday to Friday, from 8.00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  On Saturdays all the volunteers work for a couple of hours to clean the volunteer house and kitchen, and feed the animals. This usually ends around 10:30 a.m. then you're free free for the weekend.

LOCATION:
This project is located close to Arajuno, approximately 1 hour from the nearest town of Puyo, in an isolated area.  Travelling by bus from Quito takes approximately 6 hours.