COLLECTING LIVE ANIMALS IN BRITISH GUIANA 



By W. M. MANN 

 Director, National Zoological Park 



Under an appropriation for travel for the purpose of collecting 

 live animals, the writer and Frank Lowe, assistant head keeper at the 

 National Zoological Park, spent the months of August and September, 

 1931, in British Guiana. Airs. W. M. Mann accompanied us un- 

 officially. 



At Georgetown the party was very kindly received by His Ex- 

 cellency the Governor, Sir Edward Denham ; facilities were given for 

 work in the interior, and a permit to collect certain protected species 

 was issued to us. 



The first objective was Tumatumari on the Potaro River, reached 

 by launch from Bartica, which is on the Essequibo. The govern- 

 ment mail launch was not due to leave Bartica for 10 days after we 

 arrived there, but members of the Mount Roraima Boundary Com- 

 mission, A. J. Cheong, Theodore Orella, C. P. de Freitas, and James 

 Bamford, generously invited us to accompany them in their already 

 well-laden boat. This boat was 30 feet long, and contained in addi- 

 tion to 5,000 pounds of baggage these four members of the Commis- 

 sion, twenty-two boatmen, and the steersman. Added to these were 

 the three of us and a native assistant, Eric Chin. What we lacked in 

 comfort and space on the up-river voyage was delightfully compen- 

 sated for by the companionship of these gentlemen, all of whom had 

 spent their lives in the more out-of-the-way places of Demerara. 



Bird life on the river was abundant and varied, and I personally 

 acquired a violent dislike for toucans. We saw literally hundreds of 

 them sitting on bare branches of trees near the river's edge and 

 squawking derisively at us. At the end of our trip our total catch 

 of toucans was three ! 



Three days of gasoline engine and paddling took us to our first 

 destination, the government rest house at Tumatumari. This was 

 formerly a thriving gold and diamond mining center, but due to the 

 falling off in the price of diamonds, we found it almost abandoned. 

 Moreover the Potomoonie Indians, on whom we had depended for 

 assistance in collecting, were nearly all gone. The chief, Captain 

 Johnson, and Paul, a Macoushi Indian from above Kaieteur, were 

 there and they joined our party as guides and collectors. 



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