Bolivia an ‘incredible’ experience
It has been an “incredible” experience for Warnbro’s Morgan Pettersson since arriving in Bolivia to care for wild animals.
The passionate environmentalist, who spent time in Antarctica in February, spent five weeks at the La Senda Verde animal sanctuary on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, caring for animals that had been exploited.
The 24-year-old said she had always loved animals and decided to volunteer in the central South American country after visiting in 2011.
“Native animals being taken from their natural habitats is a terrible thing and needs to be stopped,” she said.
“It is another part of environmental degradation as all animals are an important part of the ecosystem and it starts to suffer once the balance is disrupted.”
Miss Pettersson spent five weeks caring for Andean spectacle bears and capuchin monkeys, many of whom had been kept as “exotic pets” in small enclosures.
“Having a monkey as a pet is not a status symbol and the reason so many of the monkeys arrive at the refuge with psychological issues because they are treated badly once they grow up and stop being cute and manageable,” she said.
“As a result, people beat them and lock them up in really small cages and many spend months in rehabilitation learning how to be a monkey in a troupe and that not all humans are going to try and hurt them.”
The lifelong animal lover said the highlight of her time in Bolivia was caring for five-year-old Andean spectacle bear Aruma. “I really hope I can return in the future to spend much more than five weeks,” Miss Pettersson said.
