Why Guyana's rainforests are a scientist's dream

By Carinya Sharples

Georgetown, Guyana

28 December 2017

When herpetologist Andrew Snyder's flashlight landed on something bright blue in the rainforests of Guyana, South America, he stopped and took a closer look.

It turned out to be a blue tarantula of the Ischnocolinae subfamily, a species most likely unknown to science.

"It was very exciting to say the least," says the PhD candidate from the University of Mississippi.

"I had no idea that it would turn out to be such a stunning tarantula but I'm glad that I went with my instincts to double check."

Mr Snyder made the discovery during a biodiversity assessment team survey led by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Guianas and Global Wildlife Conservation.

In total, the researchers found more than 30 species that are likely to be new to science.

Continued

  

New genus of electric fish discovered in remote Guyana

Electric eel doesn't stun prey

October 2013. A previously unknown genus of electric fish has been identified in a remote region of South America by a team of international researchers including University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) professor Nathan Lovejoy.

The Akawaio penak, a thin, eel-like electric fish, was discovered in the shallow, murky waters of the upper Mazaruni River in northern Guyana. Lovejoy's team at UTSC analyzed tissue samples collected during a recent expedition by a researchers led by Hernán López-Fernández at the Royal Ontario Museum. By sequencing its DNA and reconstructing an evolutionary tree, Lovejoy's team discovered the fish is so distinct it represents a new genus, the taxonomic classification level above species.

Biological diversity hotspot

The upper Mazaruni River is a hotspot for biological diversity, yet remains largely unexplored because of its remote location. The area contains countless rivers on top of a series of uplands that have remained isolated from the rest of South America for more than 30 million years.

"The fact this area is so remote and has been isolated for such a long time means you are quite likely to find new species," says Lovejoy. Like other electric knifefish, Akawaio penak has a long organ running along the base of the body that produces an electric field. The electric field is too weak to stun prey but is instead used to navigate, detect objects and to communicate with other electric fish. This trait is advantageous given the murky habitats of the fish.

Gold mining degradation

The species is named in honour of the Akawaio Amerindians that populate the upper Mazaruni. The region is increasingly suffering from freshwater habitat degradation as a consequence of gold-mining in the area.

"The Mazaruni contains many unique species that aren't found anywhere else in the world. It's an extremely important area in South America in terms of biodiversity," says Lovejoy.

The results of the discovery are published in the recent edition of the journal Zoologica Scripta.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/electric-fish-guyana.html

New species of poison dart found in Guyana – By mistake

Scientists found new species without looking

July 2013. Ecotourism and Conservation - Can it work? That was the question a team of scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Dresden were investigating when, by chance, they found a previously undiscovered species of frog that only exists in a very confined area of the so-called Iwokrama Forest.

The Guiana Shield in the north of South America accounts for more than 25 percent of the world's tropical rain forests, and is one of the four remaining extensive pristine forested areas left in the world (Amazon, Congo, Papua New Guinea and Guiana Shield).

Iwokrama study centre

In a study sponsored by the Stiftung Artenschutz [Species Conservation Foundation] and the Verband Deutscher Zoodirektoren [Association of German Zoo Directors], the Dresden team, led by biologists Dr. Raffael Ernst and Monique Hölting investigated whether conservation of amphibians and ecotourism can be reconciled in the forests of Guyana. The investigations are being carried out in close co-operation with the international not-for-profit organization Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development.

Read on

Brit catches massive monster fish

A British adventure angler achieved a lifelong ambition when he landed a 250lb monster fish in South America - using a piranha as bait.

Steve Townson landed the wild arapaima - the world's largest scaled freshwater fish - from Middle River Essequibo in Guyana.

Mr Townson, who travels the world catching exotic fish, used a 2lb piranha to catch the mighty fish, plus another weighing around 150lb.

"The Arapaima is one of the world's biggest and mightiest freshwater fish and to catch them in the wild is a rare privilege," he said.

"They are protected and cannot be removed by law for the table, but our partners in Guyana are working on strictly catch and release with the local Amerindians.

"The Arapaima is the largest scaled freshwater fish in the world, but they can be delicate and must be handled with care.

"The fish I caught were never removed from the water and swam away strongly to fight another day!"

Mr Townson runs UK-based company Amazon-Angler.com - a company specialising in South American angling holidays.

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Brit_catches_massive_monster_fish

Killer bees kill mother of 8 in Guyana

A mother of eight has died in the South American country of Guyana after she was attacked by a swarm of Africanized bees.

Police said Friday that 47-year-old Munia Sanchara was attacked while picking mangoes from a tree at her house in the coastal community of Cane Grove. Police said she was declared dead after arriving at a hospital in the capital of Georgetown.

Guyana has reported several fatal bee attacks in recent years.

Africanized bees from South Africa were introduced to Brazil in the late 1950s for a crossbreeding program and some accidentally were let loose.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Killer-bees-kill-mother-of-8-in-Guyana/tabid/1160/articleID/244212/Default.aspx

Worst fish-kill in recent times off Guyana and Suriname

In what authorities believe is one of the worst fish-kills in recent times, a lot of Curiass is being washed up on the Guyanese and Surinamese foreshores, apparently due to murky Atlantic Ocean waters and the discharge of freshwater into the sea.

The Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture says mostly dead Cuirass have been sighted since January 9 and the situation peaked on January 20 when a “significant amount of dead fish was observed on the beaches in the area.

Consultations with Surinamese Fisheries Department officials have revealed that similar occurrences of dead fish have been observed in the vicinity of Nickerie and Coronie during the same period, the ministry here stated.

“An on the spot observation conducted by the Regional Fisheries Officer revealed that the gills were heavily coated with sling mud and slime. This condition may have resulted in oxygen deprivation to the fish resulting in death,” Guyana’s Fisheries Department added.

While the observance of dead fish is said to an annual occurrence by local fisherfolk in both countries, Guyana’s Fisheries Department believes that  this year’s was  “noticeably worse” and may have resulted from one of or a combination of factors.

They include turbidity of the water in the area – caused by excessive rainfall in the general region resulting in excessive cloudiness of the water due to suspended particles from the rivers which flow into the ocean and reduced dissolved oxygen levels. The other major factor could have been a high fresh water discharge – the high discharge of fresh water from the rivers may have disrupted the salinity content of the water in the area which could adversely affect fish in the area.

The University of Guyana’s Biodiversity Centre is expected to conduct tests on samples collected on January 22 to determine the cause of death of the fish. Results will be available several weeks later.

The Fisheries Department said it was also conducting continuous water quality tests to determine the effects of the rainfall on the water quality in the area.

According to officials, the situation has improved greatly since Sunday January 22 and Wednesday, with far less dead fish observed on beaches along the Upper Corentyne Coast. “The situation is being continually monitored by staff of the Fisheries Department,” the Agriculture Ministry department said.

http://www.demerarawaves.com/index.php/201201253191/Latest/worst-fish-kill-in-recent-times-off-guyana-and-suriname.html

Briton catches 18ft anaconda in South America

McCann (right) with fellow traveller Robert Pickles (second from left) and two guides. Picture: Barcroft Media

A British man has captured what is thought to be one of the largest snakes in the world.

Niall McCann, a 29-year-old biologist from Cardiff, snared the 18ft anaconda in the tropical rainforests of Guyana, South America, three weeks after he initially spotted the creature during his exploration with fellow traveler Dr Robert Pickles. The find occurred in 2009 but photos have only recently emerged.

The pair had initially set off to search for “giant otters” but came across a river teeming with wildlife - an area never before surveyed by scientists.

Speaking exclusively to Yahoo! News, Mr McCann said: “The animals there had never seen people before so you could get incredibly close to them”. Admitting that the Rewa River in central Guyana was “like the garden of Eden” he also revealed that during the three-week adventure across the river they spotted seven anacondas, four over 16 feet long.

Recalling the first time they saw the 18ft anaconda, the 29-year-old biologist described the behemoth as “frighteningly enormous”. Pulling up their boat beside the bank, McCann and Pickles climbed out to take a closer look. “When you first see something of that size you just don’t know how it will respond. We were very scared, we had heard innumerable horror stories of them taking people and killing them – you know this is a seriously dangerous animal you are faced with,” McCann said.

After taking photos from a safe distance they continued on, spotting the same snake three weeks later in the same spot. After going back up the river that night to camp they “felt confident having handled a lot of snakes and crocodiles in the previous three weeks,” coming to the decision to capture it the next day.

“We spent about 20 minutes preparing the landscape so we could encourage it to move inland, we didn’t want it to go into the river as it could have escaped,” McCann told Yahoo! News.

“It would stretch out then coil, ready to strike, then stretch out and coil again. I said, ‘right, next time it stretches I’m going to go for it’. It started to stretch out and I just leapt on top of it with both hands behind its head, my knee on its back and the other chaps piled on behind me”.

“It was a struggle for the first 30 seconds or so as it tried to move its head from side to side. It tried to scratch at us then Ash, the head guide, came round the front and grabbed it by the jaws as I lifted it up – wrapping its jaws with tape so it could no longer bite us”.

The intrepid explorers then ensured the anaconda could not escape with its jaw taped shut as it would not survive in the wild - a circumstance that McCann admitted would have been “very upsetting for us”. After measuring the anaconda they then freed its jaw – allowing it to escape.

“We were doing it for scientific purposes but I can’t lie, we were also having an adventure,” McCann admitted. “This is the largest snake in the world, it is a pretty amazing thing to do as a biologist to get close to one let alone handle one. There is something primordially intimidating about the appearance of an anaconda- especially one of those proportions”.

Research continues after McCann helped set up a British based conservation project in the area.
 
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/briton-catches-18ft-anaconda-in-south-america.html