Spider monkey enthusiast - zoo keeper looking to volunteer in Mexico.?

Question

Hi folks,

I am a zoo keeper in Australia and I work with (you guessed it!) spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi).

I am keen to visit these guys in the wild, and help if I can. Web searches aren't turning up much as far as any programs that might exist over there for this kind of thing.

Does anyone know of any programs involving spider monkeys in Mexico that might accept a volunteer?

Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Cheers in advance,

Heidi

Answer 1

To be perfectly honest , Mexico has the internet , dont get me wrong. But they are not really up to speed on placing job oppurtunities on employment websites.  Maybe behind the times , high un employment , I dont know.

It further hurts you with such a specialised field. I GUESS they just bring someone thru the ranks in that kinda field here in Mexico. Just a different type of job market and way they do things here.

Maybe poke around in the Mexico section of a Yahoo answers and youll get a better " feel " of Mexico and understand what Im saying.............

My only suggestion is find places , just places that employ your field and come visit. May be hard because alot of companies , and research , zoo type of places  dont even have a web site. They just have and do buisness here and just dont build and keep a website, They are just a different buisness " format " than other countries. Third world I guess.

heres one instance. I have been walking in the city of Acapulco and seen specialized built trucks poke down the street with Tigers , monkeies, panthers and whatnot in the caged back while people pick up there children and approach to look.  this really upsets me. The panthers just pacing around , horns honkin , buses and cars , people ,a noisy city enviroment, and here are these exotic animals totally out of place and on display . Not common but seen. this is their culture.

Hope it helps and good luck.

Answer 2

I would try to contact the AZCARM, which stands for Asociación de Zoológicos, Criaderos y Acuarios de México. I think they have a program for the conservation of the spider monkey. I believe it is better to contact them than to try individual zoos or the like.

BTW, even though animal cruelty does exist in Mexico, as said by the pp, I don't think it's part of our culture (or at least not everyone's). Anyway, it's not encouraged, but we still have a long way to go regarding our laws to that respect.

Their website is in Spanish:

http://www.azcarm.com.mx/

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Hi Heidi, some opinions are wow! anyway of course we use internet for job searching purposes, but I doubt you'll find something there, anyway the 2 most popular webpages for that purpose are:

http://www.computrabajo.com.mx/bt-oferta...

try categoria científico / investigación

or

http://www.occ.com.mx/

Educación/Entrenamiento or Viajes

I'd recommend you to search in the Yucatan, Quintana Roo or Chiapas states, which are the southernmost states, where the jungles are.

Now, here's a civil association that is mentioning a program with spider monkeys in Yucatan, you could try it, it seems that you can contact them by email:

http://www.pronatura-ppy.org.mx/programa...

Maybe they can help you at the National Council of Science and Technology, they sponsor many programs and students in graduate levels:

http://www.conacyt.mx/comunicacion/Agenc...

I think that you should learn some Spanish because there's plenty of information about it if you search for "mono araña" which is spider monkey.

Thanks for caring about our smaller brothers!