Digital technology key to Guyana’s wildlife conservation strategy

Mar 17, 2024 News

=Interesting Creatures=

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – Guyana is rich in biodiversity, especially with an abundance of a wide variety of wildlife species and to preserve this status digital technology is playing a key and critical role.

The Giant anteater in its natural habitat

Recent wildfires across the country have been threatening the existence of wildlife in some parts but thanks to camera traps and other digital data collecting methods used by a number of non-profit organizations, the country has been able to keep track of their movements and even discover new species, especially in the Rupununi Savannahs.

On March 4^th last, Guyana joined the rest of the world in celebrating, World Wildlife Day under the theme, “Connecting people and the planet: exploring digital innovation in Wildlife Conservation”.

The Black Currassow commonly known in Guyana as Powis

One of the non-profit wild-live conservations in Guyana, “Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme”, used the opportunity to show how it has been using technology to collect data on the wildlife species found in the Rupununi, Region Nine district.

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is a major international initiative that aims to improve wildlife conservation and food security.

The SWN-Guyana on its Facebook page said, “The SWM Programme has gathered extensive camera trapping data and has been using Kobocollect for data collection for many years”.

A group of Wild Hogs or bush pigs foraging in the forest

“Soon we will be entering into some new technological fields such as eDNA, soundscapes and testing a nano laboratory for metagenomics to access prevalence of zoonotic diseases in wild meat!”, the organisation stated.

According to the SWN, Rupununi Savannah is teeming with wildlife, including a large variety of bird species while fish and wildlife remain integral part of the indigenous culture and diet.

Below is a spread by the camera-trapping photos shared by the SWN of some of the wildlife species that call the Rupununi Savannah their home.

A Tapir commonly known is a bush cow in Guyana, have a drink at one of the many creeks in Rupununi

All photos were credited to Marlondag

The Jaguar the largest cat of South America

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conservation, Interesting creatures, Rupununi Savannah, Shervin Belgrave, Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, wildlife

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