The importance of saving

I was sad because my cousins have lost their home because humans cut down trees that contained their nests. That left my cousins without a home and now there are only 173 Higuacas like me left in the whole world! Can you imagine!

Most of my cousins and uncles have not been able to find a place to live and have disappeared. That made me very sad and I thought humans were not friendly for taking my family away.

One day I wanted to play and found that there was no one of my age to play with me. I was so upset that I told my daddy, humans were very mean, for they took my cousin's homes away from them and that was the reason why I was alone. My daddy explained to me that most humans were friendly, and, that when they were building their houses they didn’t know they were destroying ours.

That day I discovered that he was right. I was bored, without any friends to play with, and then I saw a woman near the tree my family and me nest in. I was upset and decided to bother her by making loud squawks with my voice. Instead of annoying her, she started to imitate my sounds but didn’t play with me. I got upset and thought that my daddy was wrong. If humans were friendly why didn’t she want to play with me and simply ignore me instead. I just wanted to be her friend. Later I discovered what she was doing. My dad explained that the reason she was near our tree was that she was building an artificial or “man made” house for us to be safe. She was not ignoring me. She did not want to scare me and for that reason she maintained her distance while constructing a beautiful new home for my family and me.

The cutting of trees left many of us without a home. However, many humans that care about their island’s resources have helped us. They have taken some of us to the aviary, made us artificial nests for reproduction and given us plenty of food, so my cousins now have their babies in a protected environment. When they are strong, they are set free to live with us in the forest. That way I will have more friends to play with. Isn’t that wonderful?

There are many good people that feed us, and help to build homes for our protection. They are also working hard to save forests and other natural resources from the damage of human intervention that would leave us without a place to live.

Now I know that humans are not mean, they are like you and me, friends!