Thirty-Seven Returns Between El Paraíso and Los Guardianes

Along the green corridor that bridges the farms El Paraíso and Los Guardianes, on April 22nd, EPA Cartagena opened the cages and released the held breath of 37 animals returning to the wild. Nine canaries shot toward the first tree they could find; a jilguero menor followed close behind. Two boas eased themselves through the leaf litter without any hurry, while eight iguanas vanished into the branches with that ancient elegance particular to reptiles. Alberto, the caretaker at El Paraíso, was there to witness the moment seven morrocoyes patirrojos touched free ground for the first time in who knows how long. Not all of them left that day. The four titíes cabeciblancos — a species endemic to Colombia's Caribbean coast — entered a pre-release enclosure, where they will spend three weeks learning, or perhaps remembering, what it means to live without bars. Two rositas also found their way into the forest, along with three juvenile zarigüeyas, a tumbayegua, and a dog who, by some turn of fate, shared the day alongside her wild companions. By the time the sun bore down hard on the boundary between the two farms, the land had already swallowed nearly all of them. What remained was that particular silence animals leave behind when they disappear into the vegetation — the sign that everything went exactly as it should have.