A dedicated team is heading deep
into the Central American rainforest.
Their cargo is precious, a troop of orphaned spider monkeys.
Their mission is simple - to return the monkeys to where they belong.
It's all in a day's work for the staff at the jungle animal hospital.
Here the wards are full of rescued animals,
all hoping for a chance of freedom.
The day-to-day tasks are endless,
the highs and lows exhausting and the unexpected never surprising.
We try to do our best.
We need to make sure that these animals have a second chance
because they do deserve it.
What is certain is that the hospital's vets and their team
will work tirelessly to help every patient
that comes through their doors.
It takes a lot of time and effort to do it
but that's what we're here for
because that one little animal needs help.
This is animal rehab, jungle style.
A daily battle to save lives in
Guatemala's busiest Rescue Centre.
There's a special delivery for the vets at ARCAS Rescue Centre.
Animals find their way here from all over Guatemala,
most of them victims of the illegal pet trade.
With over 700 animals of all shapes and sizes,
the centre is already at full capacity,
but they try to turn no-one away.
Can you give me a hand? Yep.
The latest arrival is just one month old.
We've got a baby spider monkey here,
given up to the authorities in Guatemala City.
They sent her up to us.
People keeping monkeys as pets is sadly quite common.
MONKEY SCREECHES
The only way to get a baby monkey like her is to kill the mother
and then keep this little baby orphan in a human environment.
MONKEY SCREECHES
Alejandro Morales has dedicated his life to saving animals
and trained as a vet so that he could make a difference.
MONKEY SCREECHES
Right, yeah, bring him in.
His partner Anna Bryant is a zoologist from New Zealand
and takes care of all the young orphaned animals
that come through the door.
There's a very traumatic time for them.
They've been ripped away from their mother and they've been
stuck in a box or in a car
for God knows how long so it's for the best that she's here now.
The baby monkey is now at the start of a five-year journey through the
Rescue Centre which will culminate with her release back into the wild.
After a period in quarantine, she will join up with other
rescued spider monkeys to form their own troop.
Here she will hopefully find a mate and go on to rear her own young.
Eventually her troop will be moved into a much larger enclosure
within the forest.
This will be the final stage of their rehabilitation.
This troop has been living here for over a year
and all being well, is due for release in just three months' time.
They should now have learned to recognise their natural food
and develop the climbing skills they need to move around the canopy.
It's now crunch time for these monkeys.
Anna is carrying out a final study to see if they're ready.
There's one monkey that Anna is most worried about,
an adult male called Bruce.
He separates himself away from the group
and doesn't interact as well as the other ones do.
Unfortunately, he's the underdog of the group, really, which does
make you feel a bit more attached to him in some respects
because he is such a distinctive looking monkey as well as
we've obviously had a lot of focus on him.
Bruce is now seven years old and this is his only chance for release,
but he must learn to socialise more if he is to survive in the wild.
Over the coming weeks, Anna will be keeping a close eye on his progress.
The jungles of Central America
are among the most important in the world.
Once the centre of a lost civilisation,
this vast tract of wilderness is known as the Maya Forest,
stretching from Guatemala through Belize into Mexico.
It's home to over 4,000 species,
including some of the jungle's most celebrated animals.
It's one of the largest tropical rainforests
that are left in the world.
When you get on top of the canopy, it's just this green carpet
that extends for kilometres and kilometres
and there's nothing around you but forest.
It's immense but it's also so frail and so threatened.
In the last 30 years, huge areas of land across
Central and South America have been cleared for agriculture.
As a result, some of the region's most precious wildlife
is now under threat.
And one of the most iconic species is the scarlet macaw.
These magnificent birds were once a common sight
but the subspecies found here in Guatemala is rapidly disappearing.
Scientists believe there are now fewer than
300 individuals left in the wild.
This year the team at the Rescue Centre are planning to make history
by releasing a group of their own captive-bred macaws
to boost the wild population.
With these birds in such danger,
each new chick is extremely precious.
We're looking at a two, three-day baby...
It's this little beautiful thing
and it's got a full crop
so that means the parents are feeding him.
It looks a very, very healthy three-day-old baby.
There's no words to describe how important
each one of these animals is.
And this is how it all begins.
Once it's fledged, this chick will eventually join those waiting
to be released into the forest.
At the Mammal Quarantine Department, the centre's newest spider monkey
is settling in well.
She's just starting to feed from a bottle.
Anna needs to form a bond so she can care for her
but she also has to be careful not to get too attached.
We obviously want them to trust us enough
for us to be able to feed them
and for us to help them develop and for them to gain weight
and to not be too stressed
but we also don't want them to be too used to us.
If she was with her mother, she'd have a lot more contact.
Her mother would carry her constantly with it.
If we were to do that, we probably wouldn't be able to release her
in the long-run, so it's a fine line that we have to tread.
But it's a very...
..very heart-warming moment when they do look at you like that.
It's very cool.
The baby monkey has been given a teddy bear as a surrogate mother.
She will remain in quarantine for the next three months.
With so many mouths to feed, the work at the centre goes on
seven days a week, all year round.
Most of the feeding and cleaning is done by local staff
and volunteers from all over the world,
while the vets deal with the emergencies and the clinic.
It's a never-ending conveyor belt of rescued animals of all shapes
and sizes, revealing the richness of the Guatemalan jungle...
..but also the shocking extent of the pet trade.
The animals are treated by the vets then nursed back to full health
before hopefully being returned to the wild.
THEY SPEAK SPANISH
Some patients are deemed fit for immediate release...
..and come in and go out the door on the same day.
The centre also attracts wild visitors
from all over the forest, drawn in by the prospect of a free meal.
A flock of black vultures are
regular diners at the crocodile pool,
risking life and limb for a piece of fresh chicken.
VULTURE SQUAWKS
Even the ants are on the take,
making sure nothing goes to waste.
Occasionally, some of these wild animals come to the vet's attention.
MONKEY GROWLS
A family of howler monkeys visits the centre every day,
helping themselves to leftovers.
Alejandro has noticed the baby has a large growth on its neck,
which could become serious unless treated.
He wouldn't normally interfere
but it's impossible for him to ignore it.
It's a good thing that we caught him at the time that we did
cos the bigger that injury gets, the more of a threat it is to him.
He could get a big infection, he could get like a big
mass on his neck and that can put some pressure on his spine
and then his nerves and you don't want a monkey with problems
with their nerves because it could fall down from the tree.
MONKEY SCREECHES
This is a botfly larva.
They're fairly common in wild monkeys
but could be fatal for a baby.
They become very, very dangerous when they are very, very big
so that's why we intervene.
We usually don't intervene in this kind of things.
MONKEY SQUEALS
We'll have to make sure that the wound is cleansed
so that he can go back out...
..and that there is no secondary infection.
MONKEY SQUEALS
THEY SPEAK SPANISH
The baby howler monkey is finally reunited with his mother...
..and should make a speedy recovery.
MONKEY CHATTERS
The spider monkey troop now has just six weeks left
before their planned release.
It's breakfast time,
a raucous occasion which brings them all together.
All except Bruce.
Bruce is still not mixing with the rest of the troop
but that's not the only problem.
He's also spending too much time on the ground,
picking up any food that falls from above.
And more worrying still, having spent his early life as a pet,
Bruce has never developed a fear of humans.
He's very used to people.
He'll come close to the fence, he'll sit beside us.
He doesn't want to be afraid of us and so it's very, very difficult
to be able to try and get him to understand that he needs to be.
He also has taken to sleeping on the ground, under the bushes.
I do feel a little bit sorry for him because he's come so far
and he's been given this chance to be able to go back into the wild.
And so, it's very, very difficult to see a monkey that's almost there,
that's got the chance to almost be free, to not being able to
exhibit the right behaviour.
Out in the wild,
spider monkeys have to watch out for a wide range of predators.
So they're naturally very cautious.
They spend over 90% of their life in the canopy
and rarely go down to the forest floor.
If they do, it's for the shortest possible time.
One of their greatest enemies is the jaguar, the jungle's top predator.
To survive in the wild,
spider monkeys need to be on their guard at all times.
Bruce must spend more time up in the trees,
if he is to stand a chance of being released.
Having tried everything to help him, Anna is now taking extreme measures.
FIRECRACKER BANGS
She's using firecrackers to scare Bruce off the ground.
It's a very loud noise, a very sharp noise
and they get scared and they will therefore associate
being on the ground with bad things, with negative things.
FIRECRACKER BANGS
We want to give them the best possible chance and in order
to do that, they need to be up in the trees for the majority
of their time.
Bruce won't be set free with the rest of the troop
unless he can change his behaviour.
At the clinic, an unusual patient has been brought in
with a nasty fracture.
We received a baby northern potoo, which is a very, very rare bird.
Potoos are secretive nocturnal birds,
closely related to nightjars.
This is the only one they've ever seen in the clinic.
He has a broken leg so we are going to anaesthetise him
and see if we can repair his leg.
With so many different shaped animals to treat,
the vets often have to improvise on the spot.
No-one makes standard gas masks for baby northern potoos.
We have a makeshift one that we use with recycled materials.
He's quite young.
This species don't really do well in captivity
so we'll do as little intervention, as little time with us as possible.
Push him, push him.
The potoo will not survive in the wild with a broken leg
as he can't forage for his own food.
His only chance is immediate surgery.
This is the first time Alejandro has ever had to operate
on a potoo and it will require all his skill as a vet.
This is very, very painful.
Once the potoo is safely asleep,
Alejandro's first job is to try to straighten the broken bone.
Right now it's in line and it's in a good position.
Keep the leg at that height.
Can you turn off the light, please?
Thank you.
The operation has worked
but the potoo can't be released until he's fully healed.
It's not the most stable of fractures
but it will hold, it will hold and
now all we need to do is find out what we're meant to feed him.
Alejandro is mixing up a cocktail of fruit and flies
to tempt the potoo into eating.
If you touch their beak, they open.
They're very, very big-mouthed.
Up to now I don't think that he's liking what we're feeding him
because he's not swallowing completely.
So we're going to keep trying
because there's really not much we can do but try.
We need to make him eat.
He has to eat because if he doesn't eat, he's not going to get better
from his fracture and we're not going to be able to release him.
The next 24 hours will be critical for the potoo.
And it's also a very important day for the scarlet macaws.
They're taking a major step closer to freedom.
THEY SPEAK SPANISH
Today, nine of these birds are being selected for release.
BIRDS SQUAWK
The vets need to take a close look at each individual
but they have to catch them first.
BIRDS SQUAWK
It's a stressful time for both staff and macaws
but it's unavoidable if they're to move onto the next phase.
BIRDS SQUAWK
It is our job to catch them
right now in order to get a good health assessment and to get
everything that we need in order for this process
to actually move forward.
To avoid any risk to the wild population,
the birds must first be screened for diseases.
As each individual is so precious,
they must be handled with extreme care.
They are actually quite dangerous animals.
We need to be very careful, especially about the beak,
because these guys break nuts for a living.
They can break a nut about the size of our fist
so it has to be restrained with enough technique to make sure
that the animal is not injured and you don't get injured as well.
The driving force behind the macaw project
is senior vet Fernando Martinez,
Director of the Rescue Centre.
IN SPANISH:
For Fernando, the release is the fulfilment
of his lifetime's ambition.
BIRDS SQUAWK
The nine chosen macaws are now going to live in a much larger enclosure.
Their new home is 40 metres long and will give them space to fly.
This is the macaws' final cage before they're set free.
It's really cool to be able to see them fly out
and be in a cage that has trees in it.
It's really, really important for them
at this stage to build up their muscle development.
We need to give them power of flight.
They know how to fly but we need to give them
that capacity to fly long distances, having their wings completely
spread out and being able to just have that exercise.
If all goes well,
in a matter of weeks these will be the first captive-bred
scarlet macaws ever to be released into the Guatemalan rainforest.
It's 6am on a Sunday morning and
Alejandro is worried about the potoo,
so he's heading into the clinic.
Today is my day off but the potoo
needs to be fed and he's very weak so I'm not having anyone else
feed him so I'm coming in
in the morning and the afternoon to feed him.
Even after ten years' experience and hundreds of patients,
some animals hit a soft spot.
And Alejandro has started having dreams about the potoo.
Early this morning, I dreamt about him being dead.
So the first thing I do, which is grab my bicycle
and rode to work to make sure that he was OK...
..as it was quite a hideous dream,
I actually haven't had that for a while.
As the hours pass, Alejandro stays in the clinic
by the potoo's side to keep watch.
The potoo still hasn't gained any weight
and Alejandro is taking it personally.
Right now it's just give him some fluids...
..and I hope that he can actually have a bit of fight in him.
And I can give him a hand in getting back to full strength,
the way he was a few days ago.
You could just see him fade little by little
and some animals do get to you for the most unexpected reasons...
..and it was just heartbreaking.
Despite all Alejandro's efforts, the potoo doesn't make it.
Life in the forest is fragile
and fresh casualties arrive every day.
The staff here fight for every life
but the battle against the illegal pet trade is never-ending.
Wildlife trafficking often takes place under the cover of darkness.
One of the most common methods for smuggling animals out
of the forest is by public transport.
The vets from the Rescue Centre are trying to combat the trade
by working with the authorities at checkpoints
on the main routes out of the jungle.
It is breeding season for all the parrots and some other
mammals as well, so there is a very high chance that a lot of little
baby orphans that have been taken away from their mothers or
away from their nests are going to be found
in one of these vehicles tonight.
As the operation goes on, the officers found more
and more baby parrots.
This batch were hidden in the hold of the bus.
A young couple is apprehended and taken into custody.
This kind of scenario is quite common for someone to get
a bird into their bag and try to transport it in a bus
because that's easy money for them, illegal easy money.
It's our job to protect the animal.
The animal now becomes evidence
and that evidence is under our care.
These baby parrots are the lucky ones.
They'll be given the best possible chance to be free again.
Whenever new patients arrive at the Rescue Centre,
the first job is to get them checked in.
THEY SPEAK SPANISH
The priority for now is to rehydrate and feed these baby parrots
after their traumatic journey out of the jungle.
As long as we can undo their malnutrition,
we will have a very good chance of success with these guys.
We can still teach them how to be proper parrots
and not have to depend on humans.
In one month alone, the centre can receive over 100 baby parrots.
We do tend to get a lot of baby parrots in. It's the season
when they start hatching
and that's a time when it's very easy for people to grab them.
It's really, really sad and it's unfortunately quite common.
Most baby parrots never even make it to market.
The vast majority die en route.
The way the people carry these animals is completely inhumane.
They're wrapped up in plastic bags.
They usually can't breathe and that is why
there's a lot of fatalities.
Up to 70%, 80% of the animals die in transit in order for people
to please themselves and that is...
..that's just, it just makes you angry.
If all goes well, in two years' time these baby parrots will be
returned to the forest.
THEY HONK QUIETLY
THEY CONTINUE HONKING
But not every rescued animal has the chance to go back to the wild.
A pet puma has just been confiscated from a family home
and he will now stay here for the rest of his life.
Unfortunately we won't be able to release him.
He would normally be taught by his mother how to hunt properly
and that's been taken away from him.
Also, very, very sadly, a lot of people's first response
on seeing a puma is to shoot them.
We can't put him back into a situation like that, it's not fair.
The Rescue Centre is also home to two orphaned jaguars.
They were confiscated as pet cubs
and never learned to hunt from their mother.
They would not survive in the forest.
All the vets can do is give them food
and a safe place to live out their days.
Anna's Mammal Quarantine Department is filling up quickly.
Her latest patient is a baby grey fox found alone in the jungle.
He'll now stay under Anna's care for the next six months
until he's old enough to fend for himself.
He's eating incredibly well, which is great.
I just gave him a little bit of a run round, obviously he needs a bit
of exercise as well.
But the less handling that we do of him, the better
and he's still quite aggressive and still a little bit scared
so it looks good for him being able to be released in the future.
Working with baby spider monkeys brings its own challenges.
They're highly social animals in constant need of attention.
Their cages are quite close together and she's wanting to grab
and so what spider monkeys do is
when they can't reach with their hands,
they'll use their tail, which is what she's doing quite well.
No matter how hard Anna tries not to get attached,
the spider monkeys sometimes prove impossible to ignore.
The troop of spider monkeys due for release is
now on the final countdown to freedom.
Bruce has started to mend his ways.
He's spending more time up in the trees
interacting with the rest of the troop.
Today, his fate will be decided.
Over the last month or so he's definitely shown some improvements,
interacting with the young babies as well as with the males.
It's still unsure as to whether or not he will be able to be released.
Luckily, it's not my decision.
But we'll see how it goes and we'll be able to hopefully release him.
The only alternative for Bruce is to spend the rest of his life
alone in captivity.
So after much deliberation, the vets finally give Bruce
the go-ahead for release.
The next challenge is to capture the whole troop
and attach radio collars so they can be tracked in the wild.
Now that they've been trained to avoid people, this won't be easy.
Alejandro needs to set a trap.
THEY SPEAK SPANISH
They're going to have some food inside.
And, ideally, that will lure them in.
And when they try to get out, they're going to pull this rope
and that rope will close the door.
The last thing that they'll remember from people is that
if people feed them, they get trapped.
That is the last image of people that they will have
and it's a good thing because they're meant to stay away from us.
The spider monkeys seem to know something is not quite right.
But the food is irresistible.
The alpha male is the first to try it.
He gets away scot-free.
Now the others follow his lead.
The trap has sprung and a young mother and her baby are caught.
She instantly starts searching for the way out.
It's not long before she finds it.
Alejandro's trap has failed.
They're very smart, they're problem solvers.
They have found one of the weak spots of the enclosure already.
We've been training them for years to outsmart us
and now we need to outsmart them again.
THEY CHATTER
This time the trap works and the first two monkeys are captured.
Alejandro now has to enter the cage to administer a sedative.
This is something no-one on the team enjoys but it has to be done
so the monkeys can be given a full health check before release.
The final captures are tough psychologically on them and on us
because as much as we know that it's the right thing to do,
it's very stressful for them and you can see the suffering
and their fear in their eyes.
The toughest bit is for them to
not understand how much we love them.
As the remaining members of the troop get caught,
there is one monkey who is refusing to cooperate.
Bruce.
Having finally learned to stay up in the trees away from people,
he's now in no rush to come down.
Eventually, Bruce also succumbs to temptation.
MONKEY CHATTERS
The troop are leaving their enclosure for the last time.
After the health check, they are fitted with radio collars
so they can be monitored post-release.
The decision to let Bruce go was a difficult one
as there are still doubts over whether he's ready.
He has been interacting with the juveniles
and doing a lot of positive things but there's still a slight concern.
We do everything we can to give them a fighting shot but
it's entirely up to them once those cages are no more in their life.
It's D-Day for Bruce and the rest of the troop.
Though they don't yet know it, they're on their way
back to the wild.
They're heading into Rio Azul National Park
as far away from people as possible.
But it's a 15-hour drive through challenging terrain.
Across their range, spider monkeys have declined
by over 50% in the last 45 years.
This is now the eighth troop to be released by the Rescue Centre
and will help boost the wild population.
It's been a very long journey with them, with various ups and downs.
These are monkeys that have had an awful start to life.
They've been ripped away from their mothers, from their families and now
here they all are, so you couldn't ask for anything really better.
They don't know what's going on.
They're just looking through what they can see through the cages.
But it's finally sinking in now that we're only minutes
away from letting them out.
It's the last minutes that they're going to be in a cage
for the rest of their lives.
We've done pretty much everything we can and this is the culmination
of it and there's not much more than Godspeed and good luck monkeys.
As the troop starts to explore their new world,
there's one monkeys who's refusing to come out.
Bruce.
He's not quite ready to head into the wild
and needs a bit of encouragement to leave the safety of his cage.
Seeing them up there, that's where they're meant to be.
So it couldn't be a nicer feeling, to be honest.
It's one of those things that you kind of dream about that you
never actually think is going to happen and it's...
SHE SOBS
..it's really heavy. It doesn't look like it's heavy.
It's just incredible. I can't stop smiling.
HE SIGHS
Over the next few months, some of the team will stay in the forest
to follow the monkeys' progress.
After that, they're on their own.
At the Rescue Centre,
there are still hundreds of hungry mouths to feed.
And there are more arriving every day.
The latest inpatients are a family of baby toucans who have
fallen from their nest.
These prehistoric-looking creatures would never have survived
alone in the jungle.
But now they will be hand-reared and eventually set free.
In the Mammal Quarantine Department, the centre's youngest spider monkey
is starting on the first stage of her training -
learning how to climb.
It's very important that she learns her coordination
and learns how to hold on to trees.
She doesn't quite know what to do with all her arms and legs
and that she has a tail to use,
but she'll develop and in no time
she'll be playing on this all the time
and it will be a lot more difficult to get her off it.
MONKEY SQUEAKS
The staff at the Rescue Centre don't just deal with
the victims of the pet trade.
They also try to tackle its causes.
ALL: Hola! Hola.
Bienvenidos.
Groups of local schoolchildren are brought into the centre to
meet the animals
and to see the impacts of the illegal trade for themselves.
IN SPANISH:
Carlos grew up in this area and wants the next generation to
learn to value the unique wildlife around them.
The hope is that if the children understand the suffering
caused by the pet trade, then demand may eventually dry up.
The future of Guatemala's wildlife depends on changing the
hearts and minds of the next generation.
It may be a gradual process,
but Alejandro believes it's beginning to work.
There's a lot of awareness.
There's a lot of good humans trying to fight the fight.
We're just hoping that what we do is enough to
inspire other people to do what they can.
Six weeks after the spider monkey release, the radio tracking team
bring the first reports from the forest
with news of the monkeys' progress.
We've got good news and we've got bad news.
Good news is that 11 monkeys actually have made it.
It's over a month now and they're doing fantastically well.
Sadly, two collars were retrieved next to two dead monkeys.
One of the monkeys that died was Bruce.
They're not sure how he died, they just found him on the floor.
That it could have just been another monkey group attacked him
and he didn't have the protection of the rest of the group.
At least he did have those several weeks of freedom
and he did have the chance to be wild
and to do what he was meant to do
and unfortunately, he just couldn't adapt as well as we'd hoped.
There's better news from the macaw breeding enclosure.
The chick that was born three months ago has finally fledged.
MACAW SQUAWKS
With her brand-new plumage, she is now Scarlet Macaw Number 91.
In two years' time, she'll be ready for release.
It's a fantastic sight.
This little thing that you saw when they were born
coming out of the nest fully feathered and flying,
it just draws a big smile on your face.
It gives you hope.
The scarlet macaws' flight enclosure is empty.
The birds are being prepared for their journey to the forest.
Five of them are having satellite collars fitted
so they can be tracked in the wild.
It's time for them to head upriver and into the jungle.
The macaws are heading into the Sierra Lacandon National Park
on the border with Mexico.
THEY SPEAK SPANISH
The location has been specially selected because
there have been several sightings
of wild macaws here at this time of year.
For the centre's director, Fernando, this is the culmination of
20 years' work and is one of the most important days of his life.
IN SPANISH:
From the river bank, it's roughly a 5km hike to the release site,
mostly uphill.
MACAW SQUAWKS
This is the last time these macaws will ever see
the bars of a cage.
The macaws are being released from the top of a hill
overlooking the forest canopy with plenty of fruiting trees.
The hope is that they'll find food straightaway
and soon encounter members of the wild population.
MACAWS SQUAWK
The team are making history.
This is the first time in Guatemala that captive-bred
scarlet macaws have been released into the wild.
With these new individuals,
the wild population has just increased by around 5%.
SOBS: They're not meant to be in cages and to be able to see them...
..see them go back, it's...
..it's just indescribable.
HE SOBS
THEY LAUGH
But this is just the beginning.
The plan is to release 40 individuals
over the next five years and gradually bring these majestic birds
back from the edge of extinction.
At the Rescue Centre, life goes on as before.
The next batch of macaws must now start to be prepared for release.
And there's good news for the baby spider monkey.
After four months on her own, she has a new friend.
He's a male spider monkey, also rescued from the pet trade.
Together, these two will form a new troop.
Over time, others will join them
and when they're ready, they'll be returned to the jungle.
Illegal traffic is still happening and animals are still coming in.
We will still be here fighting the battle for the animals.
What keeps you going is making sure that you
win small battles every time.
There is hope at the end and we are part of the hope.
MONKEY SQUEAKS