Last August, SOS Pri­ma­tes volun­teer Mar­ta Arauz tra­ve­lled to Lis­bon, Por­tu­gal, to deli­ver dona­ted supplies—including uni­forms, glo­ves, face masks, and other essen­tial equipment—generously pro­vi­ded by Bar­ce­lo­na Zoo.

Whi­le the­se dona­tions were ori­gi­nally inten­ded exclu­si­vely for pri­ma­te sanc­tua­ries, we now also dis­tri­bu­te them to orga­ni­za­tions caring for nati­ve wild­li­fe, exo­tic spe­cies, and even domes­tic ani­mal shelters.

Mar­ta deli­ve­red 20.5 kg of sup­plies to the Ibe­rian Wolf Reco­very Cen­tre (CRLI), esta­blished in 1987 by the Por­tu­gue­se NGO Gru­po Lobo. Loca­ted in a beau­ti­ful 18-hec­ta­re woo­ded valley in Mafra, just 30 km from Lis­bon, the cen­tre pro­vi­des life­long care for wol­ves that can­not be retur­ned to the wild.

The­se inclu­de ani­mals res­cued from ille­gal cap­ti­vity, vic­tims of traps, or wol­ves rejec­ted by zoo­lo­gi­cal ins­ti­tu­tions, such as Noguei­ra, pic­tu­red here (Pho­to: Móni­ca Arauz).

The cen­tre follows a sanc­tuary phi­lo­sophy, pla­cing ani­mal wel­fa­re at the heart of everything it does whi­le pro­vi­ding an envi­ron­ment that clo­sely resem­bles the wol­ves’ natu­ral habitat.

In addi­tion to caring for res­cued wol­ves, Gru­po Lobo carries out scien­ti­fic research and edu­ca­tio­nal pro­gram­mes to rai­se awa­re­ness about wolf eco­logy and beha­viour, the threats the­se ani­mals face, and the impor­tan­ce of pro­tec­ting both wol­ves and bio­di­ver­sity as a who­le. Obser­ving wol­ves in a semi-natu­ral envi­ron­ment offers visi­tors a uni­que oppor­tu­nity to bet­ter unders­tand and appre­cia­te their conservation.

To learn more about Gru­po Lobo, visit:
https://www.grupolobo.pt/

We are proud that SOS Pri­ma­tes can sup­port not only pri­ma­tes but also other wild­li­fe con­ser­va­tion initia­ti­ves. If you work with another NGO or res­cue cen­tre that could bene­fit from dona­ted equip­ment, plea­se get in touch with us at info@sosprimates.org.

Finally, we’d like to thank Bar­ce­lo­na Zoo for its gene­rous dona­tion, Gru­po Lobo for its warm wel­co­me and colla­bo­ra­tion, and espe­cially our volun­teer Mar­ta for her dedi­ca­tion, gene­ro­sity, and unwa­ve­ring com­mit­ment, not only to SOS Pri­ma­tes, but to ani­mals everywhere.

Thank you!