Repentant ranchers rescuing Colombian wildlife

Samantha Zapata, animal caretaker, feeds parrots with her parents Dora Sanchez and Hector Zapata at La Nupana natural reserve, as part of its rehabilitation process in Agua Bonita, San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, on June 2, 2023. - AFP photos

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Two newborn pumas and a convalescing porcupine share a room in the home of the Zapata family, which has renounced livestock farming to focus on stewardship of the Colombian Amazon and its animals uprooted by deforestation. Just over a decade ago, the Zapatas decided to change their ways, and instead of cutting back trees for pasture, plant new ones. They sold their cows and let the jungle claim back most of their land in San Jose de Guaviare in southern Colombia. Today, the family of three work to rehabilitate animals affected in a variety of cruel ways by humanity’s encroachment on nature.

They sacrificed part of their home and backyard, where for the moment they house 60 creatures, ranging from monkeys, birds and armadillos to a spotted wild cat known as an ocelot. “This farm was dedicated to cattle raising: 56 hectares of which only about 12 (hectares) were… forest,” said Dora Sanchez, who runs the ranch-turned-reserve with husband Hector Zapata, 57, and daughter Samantha, 23. “Little by little, my family understood that (conservation) is a good thing,” the 48-year-old told AFP on the former ranch now called the Nupana reserve.



A crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous)
and brown capuchin (Sapajus apella)
play at La Nupana natural reserve.



Two woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha)
cubs are seen at the reserve.



A wounded crested porcupine (Hystrix
cristata) is seen at the reserve.

“We must preserve and protect the forest, because it is the source of life… We are one hundred percent convinced that it is the jungle” that is the future, she added. ‘Positive effect’ Like many others in this rural department of Guaviare, the Zapatas were attracted by the dream of making a new life in a “land without men for men without land.” When Sanchez and Zapata moved there in 1997, most of the locals were raising cattle or planting coca – the raw ingredient of cocaine, of which Colombia is the world’s main producer. Both cattle and cocaine are jungle killers and Guaviare lost some 25,000 hectares of forest just in 2021, according to authorities.

The family raised cattle for 15 years before deciding this was no longer for them. By 2012, the last cows left the farm. “I began to do some experiments, to set up agroforestry systems and we began to see the positive effect,” said Sanchez, an agroforestry engineer by training. “The forest began to change, the fauna began to return. We improved the water conditions and the soil began to improve.” Today, the reserve has 40 hectares of jungle, said Sanchez, and tourists visit its eco trail. Some “adopt” an animal and make monthly contributions for its upkeep. Baby animals are cared for in the family house. Roaming free on the property, a small grey fox and a capuchin monkey that lost a leg chase each other around playfully – among the animals too domesticated or weak to return to the wild.



Samantha Zapata carries two armadillo cubs.



Dora Sanchez touches an ocelot at the reserve.



An owl is seen at La Nupana natural reserve.

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https://www.kuwaittimes.com/repentant-ranchers-rescuing-colombian-wildlife/