Rainforests are primarily defined by two factors: where they are found on the earth and the amount of rainfall they receive. Rainforests are typically found in tropical locations and receive from 160-315 inches of rain per year.

There are 3.4 million square miles of tropical forest around the equator.

While rainforests cover only 2% of the Earth’s surface or 6% of its landmass, they house over ½ of the plant and animal species on Earth.

Costa Rican rainforests contain:

850 kinds of birds

100 species of dragonflies

729 types of butterflies

205 kinds of mammals

10,000 different varieties of plants

There are at least 3000 types of fruits in the rainforest including: avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos, and tomatoes.

Vegetables include: corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash, yams · Spices include: black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, turmeric, coffee, and vanilla.

The US National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest.

Despite these benefits…

Rainforests are being destroyed at a staggering rate. According to the National Academy of Science, at least 50 million acres a year are lost, an area the size of England, Wales, and Scotland combined.

An average of 137 species of life forms are driven into extinction every day in the world’s tropical rainforests due to things such as logging and cattle ranching which are destroying the trees and the animals’ homes.

On average, rainforest destruction includes:

64 acres/minute · 3,800 acres/hour · 93,000 acres/day

2,800,000 acres/month

33,800,000 acres/year

KSTR is trying to help stop the destruction.  You can help us to do so!  Stop by our store adjacent to the Hotel Mono Azul and do your souvenir shopping while helping to save the rainforest.  100 % of the proceeds go to save the rainforest!

The new Kid’s Saving the Rainforest tour is three years in the making, thanks in part to our very generous donors and our extremely talented and motivated volunteers…joking. What I’m not joking about is the fact that this tour is different from most of the other tours that are in the area. The Kid’s Saving the Rainforest tour offers something for everyone. It offers donors a chance to get a behind the scenes look at how their money is helping save injured animals with a glimpse into the work performed at the clinic (via a slide show) and a chance to see the new KSTR animal sanctuary, organic garden and organic farm. Some of you might be saying to yourself, “I’m not a donor, can I still come on the tour?”, and the answer to that question is…OF COURSE!! 100% of the proceeds of this tour go to funding projects like our rehab clinic, our sanctuary and monkey bridge projects. That makes you a donor and, this is the term I like to use, a guardian of the rainforest.

The tour itself consists of a presentation at the Mono Azul Hotel, where the KSTR headquarters is located. During this presentation we will take you behind the scenes of the rehab clinic, highlighting the animals we currently have at the clinic and how we are helping to rehabilitate them. We will also discuss other projects that KSTR has going on that help save the rainforest. After this presentation, if you choose, you can make a piece of jewelry, a postcard, or bookmark that we will then sell in the KSTR store, from which all proceeds go to protecting the rainforest. Then it’s off to the sanctuary! It is just a 20 minute drive from the Mono Azul to the beautiful property of the Blue Banyan Inn. Once at the sanctuary you will come face to face with over 20 primates that have been rescued and rehabbed, but that can no longer be released into the wild. After the sanctuary we go on a little stroll through the organic garden and farm where we can pick fresh herbs, spices and fruits.

If you are still thinking to yourself, “How is this tour different?”, let me sum it up for you…this tour does not make a profit! All of the proceeds of this tour go right back into projects that help save the rainforest.  You’ll probably learn something and you might just have a good time doing it…

To book a tour, contact the Mono Azul Hotel at 2777-2572 or 2777-1548 or email: Janine@kidssavingtherainforest.org

Titi on a Monkey Bridge

KSTR has a program dedicated to help the Titi Monkeys (squirrel monkeys), as well as the other species of monkeys that live in the Manuel Antonio Area.

The leading causes of death for this endangered species are electrocution by electrical wires while crossing roads and being hit by cars. That’s why, as part of our plan to help the Titi monkeys, we have placed monkey bridges that cross above the roads of Manuel Antonio and surrounding areas to give these adorable creatures a safer way to travel in the rainforest, to get food, shelter and to be in good physical condition; yeah that’s right, Titi monkeys need to travel 17 km a day to be in good shape.

With the help of local experts and the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) we have put up more than 150 Bridges in the Manuel Antonio area, Parrita, Uvita, and Playa Grande Guanacaste, where people have become conscience about the big problem that electrocution of wildlife is, and they’re taking actions to prevent or reduce the risk of death not only to Titi monkeys but other wildlife around the forest, and we’ll keep putting up more as needed.

Adriana Quesada

Our specialized “monkey bridge team”, is in charge of the maintenance of the bridges, and go out every month to check their condition and how they’re working.  We put up the bridges where we have learned that monkeys are crossing on the road rather than through the trees, or when there has been an electrocution.

As an organization dedicated to help the rainforest and wildlife we are committed to do our best effort to take this program around the country to all the areas where electrocution is a cause of death for many wildlife species.

Donations are very important to support this project, thanks to all the donors for their help. To adopt a monkey bridge, or to find out more information about the project, contact Adriana at 8835 6658.

Right after his surgery

Titi monkeys (saimiri oerstedii citrinellus) are small but very intelligent and dexterous.  They are unique to the Manuel Antonio area.

Last august, some kids were visiting Playa El Rey in the National Park and found a very young monkey on the ground, he was hurt and couldn’t move. They felt sorry for the little guy and carefully picked him up and put him in a box. They took him to MINAET not knowing what else to do. MINAET brought him to us. The little titi was about 6 months old and had a very serious fracture in his arm and another in his clavicle. He could have fallen from a very tall tree just when he was learning to move on his own.

These kids saved his life; he would have been eaten by a predator or would have died alone of hunger.

We admitted him into the KSTR Rescue Clinic and started hydrating him and giving him medicine for the pain. He quickly recovered his natural disposition and was a very energetic young boy! We decided that his best chance for survival and a successful release would be to do surgery on him. We needed to place 2 intra medullar pins (as thick as a match) inside his humerus (upper arm) with some very sophisticated equipment and the help of the orthopedist veterinarian, Randall Arguedas. Randall came all the way from San José just to help!

The surgery was a success! The bones were aligned and we tried to monkey-proof his arm so that he wouldn’t be curious and touch any pins or suture material! We wrapped it and placed him in a special cage so that he would recover from the surgery and rest.

Our main concern was that he would get too stressed in captivity, due to missing his family, his forest and his liberty; so we decorated that cage with branches, leaves, a hiding box, a dish with water, another one with really nice food and several worms. We needed to give him his medicines and clean the wound daily, but otherwise he needed to stay calm, eat, and heal.

Just prior to his release.

It took 2 months for the bones to heal, but when they did they were perfect! We very carefully removed both pins and started giving him physical therapy. Slowly he started moving his arm again, every day gaining more confidence. As he exercised it he developed his muscles again and he started climbing more and more.

It took another 2 months but his ability to move through branches and trees was enormous. He was ready to be released!

It was a Saturday morning when the MINAET wildlife expert took him back to the rainforest. First, we needed to find his troop. Each troop has their own unique call (like a language) and they have a good sense of smell and memory. When we found the troop, our little guy seemed nervous but as soon as he heard his mates call he responded! They all became very curious as to where the call was coming from. They got closer and the titi was eager to leave. We opened the carrier’s door and out he went! He looked back for a second and then scampered off with his troop!

Costa Rican national authorities along with the United States signed a symbiotic alliance in January to create the Energy Efficient Center (Centro de Energía Eficiente).

This center will promote research, development, and use of cleaner and more efficient energy that will allow this country to reach its objective of becoming carbon neutral by the year 2021. In other words, Costa Rica wants to mitigate the carbon that is created here.

“This is just the beginning. A committee of eight people will have to identify priorities and the best method to operate”, Gloria Villa, of the Energy Department at MINAET said. She is also very enthusiastic as it is an alliance with the University of Costa Rica (UCR), Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE).

The building to house the project will be located at the University of Costa Rica and the Dean of the University, Yamileth González, stated that this institution will reinforce research on more efficient energy but above all, it will teach the community what is learned.

“This center will also train professionals on efficient energy and clean technologies. Their experiences will help other countries in the region,” said Peter Brennan, in charge of business at the US embassy.

This idea was born last year in Trinidad & Tobago during the Cumbre de las Américas, when US president, Barack Obama, proposed the initiative. Then the regional countries applied with their own projects. “Costa Rica was chosen due to its leadership in environmental issues,” Brennan stated.

The US Department of Energy donated $100,000 as part of a Low Carbon Community Initiative in the Americas, the Presidential House said.

This is great news for Costa Rica, Kids Saving The Rainforest, and the environmental community!

I write to you today to let you know, not so much about the organization, Kids Saving The Rainforest, (KSTR) but more on how it got started.  KSTR is a 501 (C) 3, non-profit organization that was founded 11 years ago in 1999 by my best friend Aislin and me.

Here is our story:

Being the young kids that we were, we decided that we wanted to start making money all on our own. We started out by making paper-Mache bottles and painted rocks as paper weights.  We set up our little (but crazy-cute) roadside stand on a “recyclable” cardboard box, selling our items to passing strangers.  Although we made a couple of bucks of some random passerby’s, our intentions to save the rainforest had not yet begun.

Instead, we would take our earnings from our hard work to an ice-cream parlor/deli stationed right next to my friend’s house.  Our main thoughts were – to INDULGE!  Keep in mind though, that we were not your typical ordinary children.  We took much more pleasure in eating the finer foods; Beef Stroganoff, pesto, sushi, or spinach, than your mere chocolate chip ice-cream.  With this in mind, and a big smile on our faces, we would head over to the deli and order a roasted half chicken with a side of pasta/potato salad and a pickle to go.  Who really needs a mango ice-cream sundae?

Now, you are probably wondering….   Soooo, where did Kids Saving The Rainforest come from if all these two girls would do is eat?

Well, the truth is, that after we had our fill of chicken (which only took a week or two), we decided that maybe our money could be used for something a little more useful; and living in an area with so much biodiversity, we decided we should probably do something to save it.

So my friend, there you have it!  The real birth of KSTR, a story few knew, but many will now laugh about (hopefully!)

If you would like to know more about Kids Saving The Rainforest, PLEASE log onto our website at www.kidssavingtherainforest@org or visit our KSTR Souvenir Store where 100% of the profits go to save the rainforest.  The store is adjacent to the Hotel Mono Azul, one mile from Quepos on the right hand side on the way to Manuel Antonio.

First, meet the neighbors!
Raccoons are medium size mammals weighing about 13 to 18 lbs (6-8kgs). They are nocturnal and very intelligent. They are very agile, fast, and have five dexterous toes on each front foot. They are excellent runners, climbers, and swimmers making them formidable opponents.

However, they aren’t dangerous as long as they’re kept out of homes, not fed and not cornered.

Raccoons also can carry diseases that are dangerous to humans, as well as distemper which is infectious to dogs. Raccoon feces also contain parasites which are transmissible to pets and people, some are fatal.

Guidelines in keeping these animals away

1. Don’t feed them. Some people think it’s cute to have raccoons around and will feed them.  But the animals very quickly become used to getting food from humans and will lose their fear of them and possibly become aggressive if they’re not fed. So don’t start. Also don’t feed your pets outside your house. If you leave a bowl of dog food it will temp them to start coming.

2. Tighten the lid. Raccoons will keep returning to a food source such as a garbage can that they can open. If food isn’t easily obtained, that will encourage them to move on. So buy trash cans that lock or are otherwise secured. Or, simply put out the trash in the morning after raccoons have gone back to their nests.

3. Seal the entire house, throw out any hiding place you don’t need. Raccoons don’t mind living with us. They have become adapted to suburbs, they’ll nest anywhere – in the ceiling, in the walls, virtually any place that is dark. In short, raccoons are always looking for a convenient nook.

If they are in your house

1. Try hosing them out. Animals do not like water sprayed at them.
2. Turn on the radio. If they are hiding inside the house walls you can try tuning a radio station with people talking. It seems raccoons don’t like our voices and should hopefully move out in 24 hours.

If these tricks do not work call MINAET. They are the experts of trapping these wild animals. You should not try to catch it yourself, they are dangerous.

The sloths are part of the Xenartha order which also includes anteaters and armadillos. This bizarre order is only found in Central and South America. They are different from all other animals in that they have an unusual lower back vertebrae and two vena cava (returns blood to the heart, the other mammals have only one).

Evolution

They are some of the most ancient mammals and have been on Earth for more than 60 million years ago. For example, they are so primitive that their reproductive and digestive tract open into a single chamber called cloaca, like birds and reptiles.

At the beginning, the Megatherium were 6 meters (20 feet) tall giant ground sloths.

Body

Sloths are mostly folivores (leaf-eaters). They have ten teeth on the upper jaw and eight on the lower jaw.

Sloths break down cellulose through a process of bacterial fermentation like deer, cows, howler monkeys, and manatees. A leaf diet poses another problem for sloths, such as low energy, and this requires a very large stomach (almost a third of body weight), yet sloths must stay light enough to move along tree branches without breaking them.

Sloths have another peculiar skeletal feature. While almost all other mammals consistently have seven neck vertebrae, two toed sloths have six to eight and three toed sloths have eight or nine. So sloths are able to rotate their heads an impressive 180°.

They have unusually low body temperatures and metabolic rates (24-33°C or 77-96°F) which burn less energy.

With their laziness they can spend up to 20 hours motionless, and most of it sleeping. Some scientists believe that by moving so slowly they avoid their biggest predators (eagle and jaguar).

Their hair is unique. It has corrugations and cracks that encourage the growth of algae and through a symbiotic relationship, the algae gains shelter and the sloth camouflage.

Senses

Their sense of sight and hearing is poor and it seems that their most effective is smell.

Behavior

They are middle size mammals, strictly arboreal, and spend most of their time hanging from the branches of trees; they even sleep, give birth and carry their young like this.

They are very clumsy on land but are great swimmers.

Sloths defecate once a week and this is the only time they come down to the floor.

The two species found in Costa Rica are the two toed and three toed sloth, but don’t let the name fool you, all sloths have three toes! The difference is in the fingers of their hands!

Three toed sloths have a mask in their face, are grayish in color with a black stripe in their back, while two toed sloths have a lighter brown and uniform color.

The art of shell collecting dates back thousands of years.  Over time, shells have been used as currency, treasures and game pieces to different civilizations. In present times, shell collecting has led to the birth of conchologists, malacologists, among other words rarely used in the English language. The OCD reaction some might have towards picking up shells and storing them on their balcony or in vases in their living room is leading to a shortage in adequate sized homes for small sea creatures. Shells provide shelter to invertebrate animals with no mechanism of protection or self-defense.  Every so often these creatures trade homes depending on how fast they out-grow their current homes. Those beautiful shells you keep on your shelves are actually the dead carcasses of sea creatures. When clams, oysters, starfish and mollusks die, their shells wash up on the beach with the tides and are taken as a shelter to those who do not have the mechanisms to create them themselves.

The art of shell collecting and the mortgage crisis in the US are two very distinct events that don’t run too far from home. They share more similarities than Palin and McCain and resemble an issue neither one of them could solve. The economic crisis that has been affecting millions of families in the US for the past year, causing people to lose their homes, is just as much an issue for hermit crabs and similar creatures.  It has been suggested that hermit crabs are on the verge of becoming in danger of extinction due to the destruction and loss of their habitats, stemmed by shell collectors and the loss of their homes. Shells are made by the excretion of calcium around the animal. Almost all genera of hermit crabs use or “wear” empty marine gastropod shells throughout their lifespan in order to have a strong shell to withdraw into if attacked by a predator. Each individual hermit crab is forced to find another gastropod shell on a regular basis; whenever it grows too large for the one it is currently using. Since suitable intact gastropod shells are a limited resource, there is frequently a heavy competition among hermit crabs for the best available shells. The availability of empty shells depends on the relative abundance of gastropods in the right range of sizes, as well as the frequency with which shells are collected by humans in the region.

Shells are indispensable to the survival of certain species because most species of hermit crabs have long soft abdomens which naturally have no form of self-protection. They obtain protection by the adaptation of carrying around a salvaged empty seashell into which the whole crab’s body can retract. As the hermit crab grows in size, it has to find a larger shell and abandon the previous one. The shells used by hermit crabs originally come from mollusks which possess a fleshy mantle. They use this mantle to produce a shell by absorbing sodium carbonate and other ingredients from their habitat and food and secreting it in an orderly fashion to form a shell house.  It is not terrible to collect shells, just do it in moderation.  More and more shells are created as new animals are created to be used as protection, but nonetheless, you never know if the shell you pick up today could have been the perfect home for another creature tomorrow.