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We’ve been working on some exciting things in the wildlife rehabilitation program, including a slow introduction of two tamandua bandeiras, Mom and Aninha, and the release of Antony, the juvenile male who has been in rehab for quite some time. 

Mom is the mother of Junior, who was successfully released a couple of months ago. She had been struck by a car and had some significant head injuries, and there was some concern that her vision was impaired. Aninha is the now approximately six-month-old female who was found orphaned at around a month old. The positive news is that Mom seems to be navigating the changed space in the newly constructed wildlife areas with ease, indicating that her vision is less impaired than the University veterinarians had suspected, which makes her a good candidate for release. Aninha is a healthy juvenile, showing lots of great natural behaviors, including some suspicion of humans–something we want to encourage. The tricky balance of rehabilitating and releasing wild animals is being able to provide them care, like weighing, medicating, and treating injuries, without getting them too accustomed to people. Wild animals are more likely to be re-injured by approaching populated areas or homes in search of food coming from humans.

In the wild, Aninha would typically still be riding on her mom’s back for another 3-6 months and staying side-by-side with mom until close to two years old, learning foraging behaviors and the like. With both of these tamanduas in good health, our hope is that Mom might be open to adopting Aninha, allowing us to release them as a pair. To that end, we’ve been using adjacent enclosures to slowly encourage the two to meet one another with a barrier still in between by moving their food bowls closer together where they can see or sniff one another through the wire mesh. While we haven’t seen them interact yet, they’ve been comfortably eating near one another with no signs of alarm or aggression, which is a great sign. The next step will be opening the door in between and allowing them to meet one another if they choose, but with the space to separate if they become uncomfortable.

Antony, the juvenile male, is showing all the signs of being ready to be on his own: great appetite and overall health, appropriate response to humans, and natural foraging behaviors, digging in logs and termite nests we put in his enclosure to seek out insects, often preferring that over the bowls of food we provide. We have been working to clear up one last lingering health concern, and he will be ready to go. We are planning a “soft release” for him first, using a very large outdoor space that he could easily leave from, if he chooses. When construction separating the large area from Mom and Aninha’s area is completed, we will start giving Antony access to the large area while still offering food. We suspect it will be only a short time before he stops coming back. Until then, we are getting him accustomed to the new corridor between his current enclosure and the large open area so that he is comfortable and knows the way in and out, if he chooses to use it.