I have always said that you don’t have to be crazy to be a volunteer at Tasikoki but it sure helps! Volunteers are a breed apart from most people and whilst we come from different backgrounds and different countries, speak different languages and are vastly different ages, we all have one thing in common. We want to help both the wildlife and the environment.
What makes the volunteering program at Tasikoki different from the rest is the variety of activities that volunteers can participate in. Whilst our main role is to develop and deliver enrichment for the wildlife we do so much more. Our volunteers do gardening and permaculture projects, beach clean ups, sea grass meadow restoration, tree planting on Masarang Mountain and so much more. We also have families volunteering together now and there is something very special seeing a ten-year-old watching macaques rip open the papier mache balloon that he made to enrich their lives and give them great fun!
I am very proud of the evolving volunteer program here at Tasikoki and I look forward to developing it further in 2019.
Please contact Gavin at volunteer@tasikoki.org or Adrienne at awinhk@icloud.com for more information about volunteering.
Gavin J.
Volunteer & Enrichment Coordinator
Volunteer programme
Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre
North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Email: volunteer@tasikoki.org
Volunteers greenerizing macaque enclosure
Volunteers preparing nest boxes
Volunteers (Hector, Gabriel and Lucas) making enrichment
Volunteers making ‘biscuit balls’ for enrichment
Fillipa having fun…It is not all hard work!
For more please click for Sabeth’s lovely review of her volunteering experience:
https://masarang.nl/nl/nieuws/help-tasikoki-heeft-financiele-ondersteuning-nodig-kunt-u-helpen
A little more information about one aspect of the volunteer experience below
A new volunteer project that we started recently at Tasikoki is the restoration of the sea grass meadows just off the Tasikoki beach front. I had been looking for something that the volunteers could do on a regular basis that would be a break from the daily routine we engage in each day. After talking with Willy one day at his Tomahon residence he mentioned how turtles and dugong used to come graze on our sea grass meadows. He described how they had been hunted locally which meant the sea grass grew unchecked without it’s largest predators. This means the grasses grow several feet long which causes less sunlight to reach the sea floor, which prohibits the growth of many small clumps of soft corals. A healthy sea grass meadow can support huge biodiversity in the form of microscopic life, crustaceans, fish, cuttlefish and a huge variety of fish.
I joked that maybe the volunteers could start restoration by cutting down the sea grass and to my surprise he agreed most enthusiastically. Thus was born the exclusive group known as the Tasikoki Sea Cows.
Each Sunday at 9am the volunteers make their way down to the beach and along to the sea grass plains, armed with mask, snorkel, secateurs and a sack. Then off we go, bobbing along over the seagrass cutting the longer sea grasses down to about six inches in length. It is an amazingly peaceful and relaxing thing to do, especially on hot day.
We have only been doing this for about five months and already I can see a difference. We now have these huge shoals of emerald fish moving back in to graze on the sea grass, removing lots of microscopic algae,
bacteria and tiny crustaceans. Last week I saw a shoal of fish of a species I have never seen before, grazing not on the grass but on the sandy bottom between the grasses, leaving huge clouds of sediment drifting in the weak current.
Amongst other species I have seen for the first time in nearly three years here are large green sea horses, bright red sea snails and a large stunning species of shrimpfish, an unusual species because they swim with their heads pointing down and their bottoms pointed towards the surface.
I recently saw a huge crab on the sea floor, a stunning electric blue in colour. This large species is known by many names including the blue swimmer crab and they love clean estuarine water. I estimate that with their pincers out the individuals I have seen are 18 inches from claw tip to claw tip.
It’s great fun to do but to be an official Tasikoki Sea Cow you have to volunteer here and make sure you bring some good secateurs with you as you will need them.
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