URGENT! Inti Wara Yassi Wildlife Refuge in Bolivia needs our help!

Kambiz Kamrani — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:51:01 +0000

I don’t normally make out pleas to help out each and every conservation organization but my friend Allison, who worked for the following organization, told me about what’s happening to it and this one is really serious.

First some background, the conservation organization is speak of is the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi, a wildlife refuge in Parque Machía, near Villa Tunari, Bolivia. They house many animals, such as capuchin, spider, and squirrel monkeys. Recently, Jane Goodall did a special for Animal Planet where she listed her 5 heroes and she chose the founder, Juan Carlos Antezana, as her final one in the show. They are a great organization and do much more than help save wildlife.

The bad news is that Inti Wara Yassi is in jeopardy and the animals need our help! Some of the land they use for facilities such as the veterinary clinic, monkey quarantine and small animals area will be sold off by the landlord if they don’t raise $30,000 USD within two weeks. Sounds like black mail to me… the loss of these facilities may mean the animals die. That’s a lot of monkeys that will lose their lives because of this petty situation.

Please help out Inti Wara Yassi! Some money has been donated but it ain’t $30k yet! Any little bit helps…You can donate money directly to the organization by visiting the site and you can also help spread the word and bring attention to this situation by digging up this on Digg.com. That way thousands more people will read about it and potentially help.

Spider monkeys already know: Sometimes you need a hug.

Paul Wren — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 05:12:39 +0000

Animals that live in groups often break into smaller groups (fission), and later recongregate (fusion). Fission-fusion behavior is often tied to resource availability, but can also be related to social dynamics (competition among group members can lead to conflict, and breaking into smaller groups can alleviate the conflict). While fissioning into subgroups can relieve tension and conflict, bringing the subgroups back together can often be a trigger for aggression.

Spider monkeys live in groups, and break into smaller groups to hunt and eat. It has been noted for some time that when hunting parties return to the larger group, those returning often embrace the waiting spider monkeys.

Scientists from the UK studying two populatations of spider monkeys in the Yucatan have observed that the individuals who engage in this hugging are much less likely to behave in an aggressive fashion, either to each other or to others in the larger group.

Filippo Aureli and Collene Schaffner believe theirs is the first evidence for deliberate conflict management at fusion, and believe it may indicate the reason for similar greetings exhibited by other fission-fusion species such as spotted hyenas, bonobos, and humans.

References:

Morell V (2007) Hug it out, Monkey. ScienceNOW 21Feb
Aureli F and Schaffner CM (2007) Aggression and conflict management at fusion in spider monkeys. Biology Letters, Vol 3, no. 2. (published early online)

Primatology.net » Spider Monkey

URGENT! Inti Wara Yassi Wildlife Refuge in Bolivia needs our help!

Spider monkeys already know: Sometimes you need a hug.