Day 7 – Sunday, September 14, 2008. Leisure walks through the Huachipa Zoo
The workshop is over and today is my first day off.
I took the opportunity to visit the
Huachipa Zoo as a regular guest; it is a very well organized zoo, with a large collection of native Peruvian fauna and other wildlife. The Huachipa Zoo is located next to the Rimac river and serves as a refuge and rehabilitation center for the many rescued animals that the authorities confiscate from people who keep them illegally as pets or intend to sell to others.
The tapir exhibit is one of the first habitats you see. A mother and her two daughters are housed together in a large enclosure with plenty of water and toys to go around. The primate exhibits are very interesting with a large variety of local primates and other small mammals including spider monkeys and red-faced monkey or huapos. The star of the small mammals, however, is Valentina, a black tamandúa from the education collection. Another interesting feature of the zoo is the walk-through bird exhibit, a large collection of native birds in a large enclosure full with lush greenery, waterfalls and a three story watch tower.
After the Huachipa Zoo, I returned to Lima. I leave tomorrow for Cajamarca, a province in Northern Perú where I will participate in a survey looking for endangered amphibians in the cloud forests and high grasslands of the Andes and will give a talk about the efforts of the Philadelphia Zoo in trying to solve this crisis.