Dear Editor,

Not being a journalist myself, I suppose it is easy for me not to succumb to the temptation to publish a “human interest” story about someone who may be endangering species of our wildlife population and who, by his own admission, is breaking the law.

I am referring to the article (Stabroek News 10/03/2008) on the “Alligator Man” by Ms. Shabna Ullah, who I am sure is unwitting to the more extensive ramifications and darker sides of such a story. Inherent in the publication was the glorification of a man who captured, killed and skinned 210 caimans on a single excursion up the Abary creek. He has been plying this trade for 25 years and is also catching and killing “water dogs” (Giant Otters) and “tigers” (Jaguars), the latter being on the endangered species list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

It is of interest that the Caiman exports are to Brazil and Colombia. Why do these countries, with their vast network of rivers, need Guyana’s caimans (“caimans”, “crocodiles” and “alligators” are used interchangeably throughout Ms Ullah’s article). For whatever reason, these countries (and others in South America) are not known exporters; therefore they are not depleting their own national treasures they have remaining.

I should mention, in passing, that I have been advised that Guyana still allows an export quota of 20,000 Caiman skins and 10,000 live animals annually! Of the other caiman species, wedge-headed and smooth fronted caimans, the quota is 1000 and 500 respectively!

I’ve written often enough in the past on this disorganized, ungoverned (ungovernable?) “trade” in Guyana’s fauna, notwithstanding the efforts of the Wildlife Division, which, over recent years, are effecting a better control of the trade. There are ways to preserve our wildlife while allowing a person like Deodat Mahamad to earn a living. In this particular case, the answer might lie in the establishment of breeding farms for alligators/caimans, an undertaking which has been carried out successfully elsewhere (Florida, Malaysia, etc), and which is not frowned upon by CITES, and which could maintain, sustain and even increase the numbers of animals within those species that are threatened with severe depletion and even extinction.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. R. S. Surujbally, A.A.

Committee Member Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals