Kids Saving the Rainforest

Kids Saving the Rainforest

Kids Saving the Rainforest

The KSTR Organic Farm

Kids Saving the Rainforest recently partnered with Blue Banyan Inn, an environmentally friendly bed and breakfast located right outside of Manuel Antonio.

The Blue Banyan is part of a 75-acre ecologically sustainable community, encompassing KSTR’s new Wildlife Sanctuary and International Volunteer Center, tilapia farms, nurseries, and botanical gardens. As a KSTR volunteer, I spent part of my time volunteering at the Blue Banyan Inn, helping them move towards their goal of becoming fully self-sustainable. My primary job, along with Rodrigo and Tio, two of the workers on staff, was to harvest a food source for the animals housed at the sanctuary

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Colleen SmithKids Saving the Rainforest

KSTR and ICE Partner to Save the Monkeys

You see them every day parading across monkey bridges and electrical lines, but the recent electrocution of six titi monkeys in Pocares reminds us that there is still a need for a better balance between our modern world and the surrounding eco-community. While we need electrical lines to power our needs, the trouble for wildlife starts when the wires—either two primary or a primary and secondary—make contact with a grounded object, such as a tree or land, or with each other. When this occurs, the wires become electrified, creating a dangerous situation for monkeys accustomed to using them as a means of passage.

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Kids Saving the Rainforest

The Monkey Bridges Are Up Again!

As most of you know, a huge storm hit the Manuel Antonio and Quepos area in June, downing thousands of trees and branches, which in turn destroyed numerous monkey bridges.

The KSTR Monkey Bridge Crew went out several times to evaluate the damages, and found that a total of 32 bridges were affected by the storm, some of them partially damaged and many of them completely destroyed.

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Kids Saving the Rainforest

The new KSTR Tour

My name is Trevor. I am a volunteer animal rehabilitator working with Kid’s Saving the Rainforest’s veterinarian, Pia, performing rescue, rehab and release techniques for the many sick, abandoned or injured animals that come into the clinic everyday. More recently however, I’ve also taken on the title ‘tour-guide’. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Kid’s Saving the Rain Forest now has a tour! I know what you’re thinking, “Oh, great, another tour in Quepos/Manuel Antonio…”. Well I’m here to tell you that this tour is a little different than the average tour you might find around here.

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Kids Saving the RainforestPía Martín

The Tale of a Titi Monkey

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.

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Kids Saving the RainforestPía Martín

Important Alliance to Help The Environment

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.

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Janine LicareKids Saving the Rainforest

Saving Shells

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.

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