Stories from the Amazon - Took the Toucan
When this story happened, I was a teenager and well known on the mission base as being the crazy animal lover kid. Actually, when we left the mission base and moved into the city, our old house became known as the Farm House, which really tickled my funny bone.
My parents and almost all the other families on the mission base were full time missionaries. However, occasionally, other people would come on short term mission trips. Some would stay a year, some only a few weeks. We kids, always looked forward each summer to seeing if any new people would arrive and what they would be like. Some of them we really liked, like the short termer who would always fix my toy horse's broken legs, or the other one who would cook up some tasty homemade tortillas for the gang of kids. One summer, an older lady arrived and she went to one of the Indian villages to spend a few weeks. We kids never really got to meet her because she didn't spend much time on the base. When she arrived back to the mission base she brought back with her a baby Toucan which she rescued from the Indians.
If you're an Indian, you are surrounded by jungle so to survive you pretty much hunt and fish. Some villages cleared a bit of jungle and planted something called Manioc which is sort of like a potato, except some varieties of it are poisonous at one stage of the harvest. The Indians had a way to extract the poison and turn it into one of their staple food items, called farinha, alongside whatever meat they could hunt. Usually the meat hunted was monkeys and birds, with the occasional tapir or deer. They were expert marksmen and could shoot a bird down out of the tops of the trees with an arrow. Sometimes the birds, or monkeys, came with babies. Whenever that happened they would bring the baby home and raise it. Usually the baby turned into dinner later but occasionally you'd find someone with a pet monkey.
Well, this short termer felt bad for the pretty little juvenile Toucan and bought it from the Indians. But of course she couldn't take it back to the United States so whoever she was staying with told her about me. She called me up and asked me if I'd take care of the Toucan and let him go whenever he got his wing feathers in and was able to fly. I agreed and brought Took home. He (or she, not sure) was beautiful! I'd never thought too much about toucans and their big beaks. I always thought those beaks would be heavy for some reason. But his beak was so lightweight and he would take the chunk of fruit and toss it in the air and gulp it down mid-air. It was very fascinating to watch. He was sweet and would let me pet him and hold him.
Finally the day came when I felt like he was old enough to be released. I opened the cage door and after a short while Took ventured out and stayed around my brother's orchid collection, which was near the cage. He came back and forth, returning to eat his daily fruit, for several days. Then about the third or fourth day of the cage door being open, I saw another toucan flying around in the tops of the palm trees near our house. That was the end of Took. He joined up with the wild toucan and off they went. It was happy-sad. I'd see him sometimes flying around with his new mate. He never came back but he would squawk at me if he ever saw me walking under the palm trees.
I'm pretty sure this is the kind of toucan he was.
My parents and almost all the other families on the mission base were full time missionaries. However, occasionally, other people would come on short term mission trips. Some would stay a year, some only a few weeks. We kids, always looked forward each summer to seeing if any new people would arrive and what they would be like. Some of them we really liked, like the short termer who would always fix my toy horse's broken legs, or the other one who would cook up some tasty homemade tortillas for the gang of kids. One summer, an older lady arrived and she went to one of the Indian villages to spend a few weeks. We kids never really got to meet her because she didn't spend much time on the base. When she arrived back to the mission base she brought back with her a baby Toucan which she rescued from the Indians.
If you're an Indian, you are surrounded by jungle so to survive you pretty much hunt and fish. Some villages cleared a bit of jungle and planted something called Manioc which is sort of like a potato, except some varieties of it are poisonous at one stage of the harvest. The Indians had a way to extract the poison and turn it into one of their staple food items, called farinha, alongside whatever meat they could hunt. Usually the meat hunted was monkeys and birds, with the occasional tapir or deer. They were expert marksmen and could shoot a bird down out of the tops of the trees with an arrow. Sometimes the birds, or monkeys, came with babies. Whenever that happened they would bring the baby home and raise it. Usually the baby turned into dinner later but occasionally you'd find someone with a pet monkey.
Well, this short termer felt bad for the pretty little juvenile Toucan and bought it from the Indians. But of course she couldn't take it back to the United States so whoever she was staying with told her about me. She called me up and asked me if I'd take care of the Toucan and let him go whenever he got his wing feathers in and was able to fly. I agreed and brought Took home. He (or she, not sure) was beautiful! I'd never thought too much about toucans and their big beaks. I always thought those beaks would be heavy for some reason. But his beak was so lightweight and he would take the chunk of fruit and toss it in the air and gulp it down mid-air. It was very fascinating to watch. He was sweet and would let me pet him and hold him.
Finally the day came when I felt like he was old enough to be released. I opened the cage door and after a short while Took ventured out and stayed around my brother's orchid collection, which was near the cage. He came back and forth, returning to eat his daily fruit, for several days. Then about the third or fourth day of the cage door being open, I saw another toucan flying around in the tops of the palm trees near our house. That was the end of Took. He joined up with the wild toucan and off they went. It was happy-sad. I'd see him sometimes flying around with his new mate. He never came back but he would squawk at me if he ever saw me walking under the palm trees.
I'm pretty sure this is the kind of toucan he was.
My husband raised a wild bird. Nothing as exotic as a Toucan. He was just sone little sparrow that was injured. We took care of him until he could fly. Once he could he stayed in a tree in our yard and would fly down and sit on my husband's head. He migrated every winter with the rest but he came back for a couple of summers. As soon as he came back and saw my husband, he would fly down and sit on his head. We really missed him when he didn't show up one summer. I love your stories. They make me remember ones from my own life!
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