Parque Machía, Villa Tunari, Boliva

Meet Leoncio, one of the 8 pumas who walk through the jungle everyday, led on a rope by a volunteer in Parque Machía. There are hundreds of animals living in the park who were born in captivity and are either here for life being treated much better than in their former home, or being prepared to live in the wild. We volunteered here for two weeks.

I worked with what were called the ¨Small Animals¨ which included Tayras, Tehons, Cuchi Cuchis, Night Monkeys and Turtles. With the exception of the turtles I had never heard of any of these animals before.
Here I am with Petronia, likely the most spoiled animal in the Park. She loves to be held and if you get close enough, will crawl up your leg into your arms. Even though she looks lovely and harmless she bit me several times as I tried to end cuddle time.
Baby Cuchi Cuchi at dinner time! There are four nice cute ones and unfortunately one temporamental one named Frank who makes the whole job very difficult. Poor Frank is suffering from an inferiority complex because he is missing half his tail.
Amélie worked in the monkey Quarantine. This is where new arrivals to the park stay until it is confirmed that they don´t have any sort of parasite to spread to rest of the park. Sick monkeys also live here until they are well enough to be in the monkey park.
Claudio... the most adorable little baby capuchin monkey in the Quarantine.