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Designing for Wildlife: A Case Study in Costa Rica

In July 2014, I landed back in Costa Rica for the second year in a row. The air was just as humid and the people were just as welcoming as before. The only difference this time was that I wasn’t coming to vacation -I was flying down to make a big stride for wildlife conservation.

Once I arrived, I was to stay on site at Proyecto Asis, a wildlife center that offers Spanish classes, cultural immersion programs, and hands on experience with local fauna. While I hoped to improve my Spanish, my main purpose was to work with animals and test my junior thesis project.

I chose to focus on wildlife conservation because this is something my life has always revolved around. I ended up creating a comfort aide for the thousands of orphaned animals that end up in wildlife centers every year. The idea was that, if we can mimic the basic biological signals given off by a mother, we can then convince the orphan that it is not alone. By feeling less isolated, we would see a decrease in both stress and cortisol levels, resulting in a strengthened immune system and a better chance at survival. Needless to say, I had high hopes for this trip.

This dream for a ‘comfort aide’ was something Adriana Aguilar Borbón, the co-leader of Proyecto Asis, and I had been discussing for over a year. Adriana said that these young mammals suffered when they were left alone in their cages at night. It wasn’t a trained professional they craved— It was the simple ‘thud’ of a beating heart and the tight embrace of a mother.

Alvaro Del Castillo co-runs Proyecto Asis with Adriana. Because I was sponsored by both of them to test my junior thesis project, I had the pleasure of staying in their home, located above the wildlife center. Every night, I fell asleep listening to the howls of the spider monkeys and the endless chatter of the green parrots. It felt like paradise.

I got to work as soon as I settled in. I set up a surveillance system and chose three particular animals to monitor overnight. I figured I would learn the most from three distinctly different animals, so I selected a gray four-eyed possum, a prehensile-tailed porcupine, and a white-nosed coatimundi. Each one was about three months old and had come in as an orphan.

haley porc possum sm

Over the course of the next two weeks, I learned a lot about the animals’ daily habits. As I continued to see progress in the orphans’ interactions with my comfort aide, I began to notice many more areas for improvement, as well.

I observed the daily tasks of the wildlife center’s staff as well as the animals. A woman named Marielena was perhaps the most inspiring person at the center. She worked tirelessly and without complaintEach day, Marielena took the orphans into the jungle to forage. She recognized their psychological needs and realized that what they needed most was to forget, at least momentarily, that they had lived in cages.

Wildlife rehabilitators must walk a thin line between allowing animals to stay wild, presumably alone, and giving them the attention and care they deserve — while consequently destroying the protective barrier between humans and nature. I believe Marielena found that balance and I gained a lot of useful insight by shadowing her.

During my time at the center, I became best friends with Jaime the coatimundi, one of the three subjects of my study. He was three months old when I arrived and I fell in love instantly. I cannot say interacting with him as much as I did was the right thing to do, but I noted a change in behavior when he was with me.

In the late afternoons I would take Jaime out into the jungle and let him run around. In Costa Rica, coatis are known to roam the beaches in packs of ten or more, scavenging for food and digging for insects. True to his species, Jaime loved to kick up the leaves on the jungle floor and search for worms. I’d like to think that he was his happiest being with me, but I think it was truly during moments like this.

When Jaime was confined to his enclosure day or night, he made friends with the comfort aide I designed. The more time he spent with it, the more he grew attached. And unlike me, this surrogate could fit in his cage and spend twelve hours on end providing the comfort and biological feedback he craved. I began to see real hope for his survival.

Wildlife mental healthcare is not an issue that can be ignored any longer. I am hopeful for a future in which my comfort aide ends up helping animals like Jaime worldwide. I also look forward to the day that industrial designers stop and take a moment to design for someone other than humans. I hope the success of my prototype breeds interest in conservation, and that this initial project is the first of many.

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