Puppet Show Teaches Kids About Illegal Animal Trade  

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net

Approximately 30 fourth graders from San José’s Buenaventura Corrales elementary school watched with wide eyes as the fairytale character Grettel trapped and caged a wild parrot during a puppet show to educate them about the wrongs of keeping wild animals as pets yesterday at the National Culture Center (CENAC) in San José.

The show was part of a project by the nonprofit Wild Plant and Animal Preservation Association (APREFLOFAS) that uses puppets to teach people not to keep wild animals, particularly birds and monkeys, as pets.

Trapping these animals or buying them from a distributor and keeping them as pets is part of Costa Rican culture, particularly in the Northern Zone, said APREFLOFAS biologist Gino Biamonte.

“The idea for this project was born from a very real problem of wild animal trafficking,” Biamonte said. “We’re trying to reach the population through children.”

Puppeteers Anselmo Navarro and Berny Abarca, of the puppet theater group Cucaramácara, developed the performance to creatively convey the difference between domestic animals and wild animals using brightly colored puppets, music and a steady stream of humor.

By the end of the show yesterday, all the members of the young audience had promised never to keep a wild animal in a cage.

Isaac Ramírez, 10, said that although he has a pet dog, he would never want a wild birds as a pets because “they get sad being in a cage.” A group of his classmates concurred with a resounding “no” when asked if wild animals make good pets.

Cucaramácara will travel to 20 schools and community centers in the Northern Zone during the next two months performing the puppet show and also showing videos on the illegal animal trade. The project is sponsored by the U.N. Development Programme and the Inter-American Development Bank (BID).