Volunteer Stories - Chris 
I arrived in Yupukari with the intention of exploring the culture as well as the surrounding landscape to investigate what I had heard of the amazing diversity of local wildlife. Having landed at the nearby Karanambu ranch and being treated to a local feast as well as the famous ‘Karanambu rum punch’ I knew I was not to be disappointed as soon as we hit the river to Yupukari. Caiman, iguana, osprey, tanagers, falcons and a great potoo were waiting for me, and all before I’d even arrived in the village. Within the first few days I saw a giant anteater at very close quarters, which was an unexpected highlight of my visit.
My main focus whilst here was the reptile life in the local area. This was to involve my working with the Caiman Project as well as setting up a terrestrial reptile monitoring programme with a view to the Wildlife Club taking over and continuing the work after I left. Promoting environmental literacy in the community was also a cornerstone of my visit.
The five-day trip downriver to help with the black caiman monitoring for the 2008/09 season was an incredible experience. My first time camping in the tropics was enlightening, as we stayed in hammocks in the forest beside the river, eating fish that we caught each day and going out each night to capture and learn more about the local population of this unique species. It’s difficult to think of a better fieldwork experience. The work was thrilling (I use that word without hyperbole) and rewarding , knowing each caiman caught is contributing towards informing an important conservation effort. It is hard to describe the feeling of working so closely with a 12 foot animal, so perfectly adapted to its environment that it is relatively unchanged by evolution in hundreds of millions of years. My childhood fantasy of seeing and interacting with dinosaurs was (almost) realised again and again that week.
Working in such a challenging environment only added to the experience, for someone whose ‘hunting ground’ is usually a supermarket. And, despite having spent long periods camping in the UK, the week by the river left me both contemplating our dependence in the western world on our infrastructure, and craving more time away from it.
The reptile monitoring I have set in place will, I hope, reveal insights into this relatively understudied (and ecologically unsurpassed) environment. ‘Pitfall’ and funnel trapping, alongside walking transects with a keen pair of eyes forms the backbone of the research. By passing this work over to the Wildlife Club, I hope it will propagate an interest on a community level in a much misunderstood group of animals, which may have as important a benefit to future of the local ecosystem as the data collected. It will also give the Club’s members an opportunity to modify and develop the project themselves, giving them an awareness of the practical implications and considerations of field research. With luck, and funding (!), I will return to Yupukari for a more involved study, through a university in the UK in the near future, to extend the programme to other communities and habitats, with the aim of producing an inventory of terrestrial reptile species across the Rupununi. The work being done here will be an invaluable starting point for such a project as well as a working template for its replication further afield.
I have also attempted to promote environmental literacy and awareness through education more directly. Through a word game on a stall at the annual village ‘Reading Rodeo’ I taught basic ecological concepts to the children. And through our outings to look at birds and pondlife, we have observed real life examples of these concepts, be they ecosystem dynamics, life stages or food webs. The setting up of the reptile study has also been an opportunity to examine differing habitat types and hopefully, over time, an understanding of how these differences influence the species composition of the areas covered will develop intuitively among the group. Through their learning, this should provide a chance for me to add to my knowledge of tropical ecology, which has already increased ten-fold after spending time here, and by interacting with the locals.
The help I have received from the staff here, as well as willing volunteers, cannot go unmentioned and their enthusiasm has brought new dimensions to the experience for the children as well as allowing the monitoring programme to go ahead. I have also helped out with two camping trips with the Wildlife Club to explore the wildlife on and around the river, which is something I saw the children enjoy immensely.
My time here has been a rich experience, both culturally and through my interaction with the natural environment. Yupukari is a special place. In terms of its place geographically, surrounded as it is by an incredible diversity of habitats, and related wildlife; in terms of its unique position being isolated from the modern world, but at the same time connected to it, through the modern developments that the RLI have brought to the village; and finally because of its people, who are among the most warm and sincere individuals I have ever met. From an impromptu invite to join a newlywed couple at the head table of their wedding to the many meals I have received from people I hardly knew, I have been at all times in awe of the generosity I have been shown as a newcomer to the village, from people who have far less than those in the ‘developed’ world. I have learned from them and the learning experience is one that I don’t want to end here.