Target practice with the spider monkeys (mono araña) 🕷️🐒
If you're curious about how I got to work with spider monkeys and lots of other amazing animals as a wildlife volunteer in Ecuador, send me a message on Instagram (@matthias.pav) or Facebook (Matthias Páv). I'll do my best to answer your specific questions about wildlife volunteering and share tips on visiting this sanctuary.
Knowing I've inspired action truly makes my day!
Target practice serves 2 main purposes;
1) When animals are taken out of their natural environment .. (in this case the local police handed them over to the @yanacocha_rescue sanctuary to avoid them getting sold on the black market)
.. it is very important to keep them happy and stimulated, like they would be in nature🌴🏞️.
Target training provides this kind of cognitive stimulation, also commonly known as "Enrichment".
2) Some facilities prefer to train their animals in such a way, that in the case the veterinarian needs to apply medication or needs to do a general health check up, the animals are allready accustomed to coming close to the fence and interact with humans 👩‍⚕️
This way unnecessary sedation by the vet can be avoided ⚕️🩺