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RESERVA NATURAL BIOPARQUE WAKATÁ

Comprometidos con el bienestar animal

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The Sacred

Wakatá, in muisca dialect, stands for “the sacred” and represents the conservation work that takes places at Bioparque Wakatá, where we take care of 650 animals of 110 species, including domestic and wild ones, who through their work as biodiversity embassadors have a purpose of inspiring us to take care of nature.

Where do our Animals Come From?

60% of wild animals have entered our facilities referred by environmental authorities as victims of wildlife trafficking and the other 40% have been born in our Bioparque or other ex situ conversation centers that we work with, to preserve the genetic biodiversity of the animal population that is under professional care.

What is our work?

The work we do in this space can me understood from our purpose:

To fulfill this objective, we have 5 coordinations in charge of animal welfare: Animal Health Coordination, Behavioral Health Coordination, Animal Nutrition Coordination, Animal Production Coordination and an Education Coordination.

Coordinations in charge of animal welfare

The objective of the Animal Health coordination is to protect the health of all the individuals of the Bioparque Wakatá Nature Reserve animal population.

The nutrition area promotes animal welfare through the elaboration of balanced diets, that supply the nutritional requirements of the species taking into account their behavior, dietary strategies, their health, environmental factors and characteristics of the Bioparque Wakatá Nature Reserve , that have a role in the dietary processes. Due to this, there is constant communication between the animal health area and the behavioral health one, to deliver to the animals the additional requirements that each coordination considers.

The behavioral health area is the one in charge of developing all the activities that are implemented with the goal of promoting natural behaviors in the species, as well as facilitating their handling. Inside these actives, we find the environmental enrichment and operant conditioning, which facilitates the day to day handling of the animals and strengthens the link between them, and their caretakers.

The coordination of animal production has as a purpose the production of the live food, under the standards of animal welfare and in this way, satisfy the internal demand of the Bioparque’s population, providing specific nutritional sources for different taxonomic groups, providing not only nutrients but also stimuli that develop their natural behavior. One of the most important considerations when animals are under human care, is the adequate dietary measures to maintain healthy animals.

A fundamental part of our Bioparque Wakatá Nature Reserve is the education group, who seek to inspire out visitors to take environmental care actions. School workshops, environmental seasons’ celebrations, community education projects, all these make part of the activities that we develop to encourage more people to be committed to the conversation of nature.

Learning Opportunities

Agreements with Universities

We count with the support of around 60 students; biology, zootechnics, veterinarian medicine, among others, that have done their academic internships in different areas of the Bioparque Wakata, thanks to the alliances we have with different universities. We conduct joint research that strengthens knowledge on wildlife care and management, inside and outside of their natural habitat.

SOMOS MIEMBROS DE:

INVESTIGACIÓN

Una de las maneras en que la Reserva Natural Bioparque Wakatá aporta a la conservación de las especies es a través de la generación de conocimiento.

Proyectos Académicos

En el 2021 se desarrollaron los siguientes proyectos, algunos de los cuales fueron presentados en eventos académicos:

· Diseño, implementación y evaluación de una dieta en felinos (Puma concolor) basada en cambios en la presentación y tipo de presa en el Bioparque Wakatá – Trabajo de pasantía de Yanet Lara, estudiante de zootecnia Universidad de Cundinamarca.

· Implementación de dos dietas estacionales para el oso andino (Tremarctos ornatus) incluyendo invertebrados (Zophoba morio, Tenebrio molitor y Acheta domesticus) – Trabajo de pasantía de Ángela Robayo, estudiante de zootecnia de la Universidad de Cundinamarca.

· Respuesta comportamental de pumas bajo cuidado humano (Puma concolor, Linnaeus 1771) a partir de cambios en la dieta en el Bioparque Wakatá (Tocancipá, Cundinamarca) – Trabajo de grado de Duván León, estudiante de biología de la Universidad El Bosque – Ponencia presentada en el IV Congreso Colombiano de Mastozoología.

· Efecto de los visitantes sobre los patrones comportamentales de dos parejas de Saguinus oedipus en dos momentos del día en el Bioparque Wakatá, Colombia – Trabajo de grado de María Fernanda Castañeda, estudiante de biología de la Universidad El Bosque – Ponencia presentada en el IV Congreso Colombiano de Mastozoología.

· Foot Prosthesis Design to Recover the Natural Biomechanical Position in Ramphastos tucanus Specimen. Ponencia presentada en el 2021 IEEE 3rd Global Conference on Life Sciences and Technologies (LifeTech), 2021

· Impact of geophysical variables on the activity rythms of spider monkeys (Ateles fusciceps) under human care in Colombia – Proyecto de investigación en conjunto con la Universidad Externado de Colombia. Presentado en el Congreso Anual de la Animal Behavior Society – Artículo en proceso.

Se publicaron los siguientes artículos:

· Cruz-Mendivelso, Y; Gómez-Betancurt, E; Ortega-Chamorro, D; Rodríguez, C. 2021. Recovering the habitat of the green dotted treefrog (Dendrpsophus molitor) in the Bogota Savannah. FrogLog, 28 (1): 10-11

· González-Maya, J. F; Rodríguez-Álvarez, C; Arias-Bernal, L. 2021. Registro de mamíferos medianos y grandes en la Reserva Natural de la Sociedad Civil Jaime Duque, Cundinamarca, Colombia. Revista Mexicana de Mastozoología, nueva época, 11 (1): 64-69