May 2, 2008
Guardian of gators in Guyana: Native works to save caiman
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Nine-foot crocodilians don’t scare him. Neither do king cobras, mambas, or trudging ankle deep through a Venezuelan river trying to catch anacondas.
View a photo slideshow of Guyana's wildlife
“Getting down into all that muck and mire and heat catching these big snakes ... that was brilliant,” Peter Taylor recently told the
Advertiser, speaking with the excitement of a child and the reflection of a man who survived the trenches.
Now a husband and father himself, Mr. Taylor grew up in New Canaan, where his parents — Alec and Julie Taylor — still live.
A keeper and supervisor at the Bronx and St. Louis zoos for nearly 20 years, the reptile enthusiast is currently leading a field study of the black caiman in the Rupununi region of Guyana.
Nearly 40 times smaller than Brazil, Guyana houses one of the world’s most biologically diverse environments, according to Mr. Taylor. Still largely intact, he said the country offers “a rare opportunity on a big impact scale to get ahead of the rapidly descending curve that we’re on for declining life on this planet.”
Reversible after centuries or even decades, he said global warming is “small change” compared to the millions of years worth of damage and wholesale extinction that is being caused by man right now.
“We’re in the driver’s seat here,” he said, “and it’s got to happen yesterday and now and immediately tomorrow or it’s not going to happen.”
A threatened species due primarily to the hide trade in the 1950s through ’70s, the black caiman is the largest member of the alligator family, and can grow to more than 16 feet in length. According to the Rupununi Learners Foundation, which Mr. Taylor founded and directs, the now recovering crocodilian had been “severely depleted” in more than 95 percent of its original range but is relatively “abundant” in the Rupununi.
“It’s a spectacular understudied animal, it’s a keystone species, it’s a major predator in an environment that is dominated by rivers and aquatic systems,” he said. “And I knew that studying that animal would be a great model — baseline object, you might say — for training locals to get the concept (for working with scientists) and get the working experience in a very demanding project.”
In addition to increasing what is known about black caimans through an ecological study, Mr. Taylor’s project aims to educate local villagers about conservation and management of the animal and environment; to identify areas to be protected; to form “a cadre of indigenous naturalists” that will continue the study of crocodilian biology and issues; and to promote ecotourism, which benefits the village economically and encourages scientific studies of other species.
“We’re scouts for the feasibility of many, many other scientific entities to come in and do the work,” he said, adding that his team already discovered a new species of tarantula, and at least one new lizard.
From university scientists to French “bioacoustic communications specialists” looking to record the sounds made by baby caimans, many parties have already expressed interest in visiting the foundation and its Caiman House Field Station headquarters.
In addition to a field station, Caiman House has become a community center for the roughly 500 Amerindians who live in the surrounding Yupukari Village. The facility offers guest rooms for travelers and researchers; the Yupukari Public Library, and the Yupukari Crafters, a group that provide jobs and funds educational initiatives by making and selling furniture.
With the help of Mr. Taylor’s wife, Alice, the Rupununi Learners Foundation has built four libraries — an Internet-enabled public library in Caiman House and classroom libraries in three local schools — and has provided classroom supplies and teacher training.
“What I’m trying to do is bring opportunities to the modern generation,” Alice Taylor told the
Advertiser from St. Louis.
Back in the states for the moment, the Taylors had been living in Guyana, off and on, since May of 2005.
Rafe, their 12-year-old son, first stepped foot in the country at age four. While he seems to have inherited his father’s fearlessness for the sharp teeth of the black caiman, Rafe would like to be a computer game designer when he grows up.
He and his peers used the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) RuneScape in the Caiman House public library to interact with people outside of Yupikari, his mother explained. It has a “social value,” she said, adding that it is one of the few games that can run off the library’s slow satellite Internet connection.
A social worker and career counselor for low income people before she got involved in the Rupununi foundation, Alice Taylor felt the need to improve education in the village the moment she walked into a classroom there.
Empty with the exception of a blackboard and some tables, she said the classroom had only one textbook, and the children had one small exam booklet for the year’s duration and pens because the government would not supply pencil sharpeners. In addition, she said, the textbooks, lessons and exams are all in English. But the primary language of the villagers — and often the teachers — is Macushi, which is not a written language.
This, combined with one villager’s observation that creativity is something American children have and Yupukari children lack, spurred Mrs. Taylor to get a second master’s degree in information science and build libraries stocked with books, Internet technology and movies in English.
While Portuguese is the “language of jobs,” Mrs. Taylor said she wanted to focus on English because it is the “language of politics.” The Taylors hope to help the Amerindians become self-sufficient and politically active in their own country.
It was this desire, Peter Taylor said, that attracted many of the villagers to join his study team in the first place.
Leaving their wives for months at a time to work in Brazil or Guyanese logging/mining camps is “socially disrupting,” he said. They “immediately realized” that by working locally they could better contribute to their families and village.
Mr. Taylor envisions spending a few more years doing “intense work” on his study, while handing an increasing amount of responsibility to the villagers. While killing black caimans for their skin might still happen again in the future, he said ecotourism can provide a sustainable alternative for the villagers.
With a “lifelong interest” in creepy crawlers that reaches as far back as childhood days at the New Canaan Nature Center, Mr. Taylor has developed both an affinity for Mother Nature and a thick skin for dealing with her less cuddly creations.
“I’m not squeamish about anything. The most common adjective for people who are dealing with potentially dangerous animals is respect and knowing your animal,” he said, adding that many TV show hosts take “an inordinate amount of chances” for the camera.
With no serious accidents yet — knock on wood — he said the key to safety is “guarding against complacency.”
“You can’t pretend that you know exactly what’s going to happen every time,” he said, “but experience does a lot for you there, and keeping your cool does a lot for you there ... . I don’t get excited when things go wrong or if something grabs me or something gets out. I get calmer.”
More information about the Rupununi Learners Foundation, and about donating materials to the Yupukari Public Library, can be found at rupununilearners.org.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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