With Greenheart Seed	With Liana Vine
(Photos: Julie Zickefoose )

Asaph Wilson

Birding Guide, Dadanawa Ranch

Birding guide Asaph Wilson is a Wapishana Amerindian from the south Rupununi Savannas.  One of Guyana’s top birding guides, he recently joined a Guyana Sustainable Tourism Initiative product familiarization trip for international tour operators and media as the lead local guide. On this trip, sometime in between spotting the Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock and the Harpy Eagle, Asaph took some time to speak with us about conservation, his favorite birds and how to catch an anaconda.

Where in Guyana were you born? I was born in the South Central Rupununi.

 

When did you develop a love of nature and how has it grown over time? It first developed in my childhood. When I was five years old I used to go with my uncles in the savanna to hunt for food. Since then I realized that I love nature. After I finished school I realized some nature is becoming extinct and then I focused on conservation, especially working with youths.

 

I have learned a lot of things from Duane de Freitas [of Dadanawa Ranch]. He trained us as guides and then we ended up doing tourism. The visitors at Dadanawa talked with us and they told us about their countries and how much of their nature is threatened. They talked a lot about conservation and helped us see its importance.

 

Can you tell us a little about your work with the South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS)?

We have several projects. In 2000 the endangered Red Siskin was discovered in Guyana [by the Smithsonian Institution and the SRCS] near Dadanawa Ranch and we decided to use the bird as a conservation project. SRCS started to count the population of the Red Siskin in three locations. Now, we are trying to band them with different colors in each location to see where and when they travel from location to location.

 

In January we will also start a turtle project with the Giant River Turtle. It will start in January and end in April. We want to record how many nests are on the beaches along the Rupununi River and count the eggs.

 

[Editor’s note: Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency appointed the SRCS as the lead agency to monitor the Red Siskin in Guyana. True to their local roots, the SRCS has been training researchers from the area villages to conduct baseline data on the birds.]

 

Yes, I will be starting working with youths again in January in South Central Rupununi. I go all over to schools showing nature movies and do educational program awareness.

 

I focus especially on burning of the grasslands. Burning is a real problem in the south. They do it to regenerate the grasses but don’t control the fires and they destroy wildlife and plants. We promote conservation and talk to children – especially children – because they are more open. Because of the education, the fires are easing off a bit. Most of the children have learned and tell their parents.

 

We also need to focus on littering. Littering is a problem all over Guyana. People say Guyana is a heaven, you know, so I say you shouldn’t litter here then.

 

Have you noticed that people in the South Rupununi are becoming more open to conservation?

The people in the South are getting more open to hearing about conservation. We’ve been talking to them for three years now. People are focusing on conservation in the Rupununi, and birdwatching. A village in the deep south of Guyana has invited me to train a couple of youths as bird guides. They also want me to do a bird list for them.

 

I really started birdwatching in 2000 when the Smithsonian came to do research. I had a chance to go with them to identify birds. I worked for one month with them. I knew all the birds in my own language but I didn’t know the common name or the scientific name. The researchers gave me a book and I learned all of the names from it. Another time I went with Davis Finch up to Gunn’s Strip [in the far south of Guyana]. I learned songs from him. I went with him for two trips, and then I got interested in birds and pursued it on my own.

 

I started guiding for birdwatchers at Dadanawa in 2002.

 

Recently I went through formal guide training with Barry Walker and Chris Collins [The Iwokrama Birding Guide Training Program]. The training was excellent. Barry told us everything about how to guide tourists. I learned a lot from him. This [familiarization] trip has also been good experience for me. I learned a lot from everybody.

 

Yes, definitely birdwatching, but the real thing I’m trying to push now is conservation. That’s my real passion now. It’s good that they go together.

 

My favorite birds to see are the rare birds: the Red Siskin, Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock and the Scarlet Tanager.

Are there any birds that you haven’t seen yet, but would like to?

The tepui (flat-top mountains) species. I haven’t gone to the tepui region yet. Maybe one day scientists will want to go up there and I can join them.

 

What about your favorite mammals or reptiles?

For mammals: Jaguar and Puma. Puma is the real one. It is a rare species here and it’s hard to see – harder than Jaguar. For reptiles, there are Black Caiman, Spectacled Caiman and Anaconda – those are my favorites.

 

One time a tourist wanted to come to Guyana and wrestle an anaconda. So we went out and looked for an anaconda and eventually we found one. It was roughly 18 feet long. Eleven of us went to catch it.

 

To catch it we roped it on the head and the tail and then everybody holds it strong and stretches it out. We then put it in a barrel and it weighed 120 pounds.

 

The tourist didn’t come and we released the snake.

 

My favorite area of Guyana is the South. The Acari Mountains. They are rich with birds, especially migrant birds from Brazil and also from the north. There is a lot of new stuff for me in there. But I also haven’t really seen much of the coast yet, so I don’t know how that compares.

I think tourism will develop more all over the country. For us to have visitors is important because they can teach us more about conservation and rules and laws that should be better enforced here.

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