Guyana wildlife

These ecolodges aren’t just for tourists, but have become important bases for monitoring local species. In an area where there’s little other infrastructure, they serve as bases for tourism, community and conservation work, all at once.

Close to Diane McTurk’s South Rupununi ranch, you’ll find Caiman House. It’s not just a lodge, but a research station committed to making sure its conservation actions also benefit the local community. It uses tactics like community-based management strategies for protecting local species and ethnobotany projects that strive to preserve local ecological knowledge.

Travelers can offer their tentative assistance in tagging black caiman, whilst the forest and savannah nearby are good spots for trying to see Guyana’s harpy eagle and capybara. The lodge is also monitoring yellow-spotted Amazon river turtles.

South of the forest are savannah lands with scattered ranches, which meet the border with Brazil. Don’t let the lack of lianas fool you. South Rupununi savannah is also a biodiversity hotspot.

Further off the beaten track in South Rupununi is Wichabai, a lodge and research station. In 2000, they discovered a population of a small bird called the red siskin near the lodge – well outside of its assumed range. Its subsequent preservation led to the creation of the South Rupununi Conservation Society, and Guyana’s first important bird area (IBA) in 2020.

The lodge’s monitoring work has since moved on to the giant anteaters. “It’s a good example of a place where travelers can be involved in monitoring projects,” Claire explains. Visitors can go on early morning expeditions in search of this extraordinary beast, occasionally seen making stately progress through the grassland, daring amazed spectators to comment on its weird physiognomy.

Tourism plays a very important part in these projects. It’s tourism money that often allows lodges like this to continue going, and it’s often on outings with tourists that lead to important sightings.

It means that as a tourist you can have an important role in contributing to local research – especially if you have a niche interest in a particular species.

“We get very nice people who travel with us who only want to see bird-eating spiders or harpy eagles,” says Claire. Luckily, there’s probably no better place to have your niche wildlife watching interests indulged. “We are really lucky that we have a really reliable harpy eagle nest we can take people to see.”

The world’s largest scaled freshwater fish, the world’s largest ant and alligators, the giant anteater and giant armadillo find space to roam in Guyana’s savannahs, forests and waterways. There are enormous otters, eagles and snakes. Spiders large enough to eat birds (though they prefer the traditional insects) venture out to hunt at night, whilst the world’s largest rodent isn’t a horrifying rat-king, but the Moomin-like capybara.

Once under threat for their pelts, the profile of giant river otters in Guyana and the world has been raised significantly – almost single-handedly by the pioneering work of Diana McTurk, who lived on a ranch out here. Growing close to sea otters in size, with teeth to match, once you’ve seen these master fishermen, you might hear them too – they are surprisingly loud. They have unique throat markings, which is what distinguishes them from each other.

The harpy eagle and the cock-of-the-rock are Guyana’s most famous birds, and there are wonderful parrots and toucans. Bird guides are often very highly trained and passionate here and speak English, Guyana’s official language.

The cock-of-the-rock is the most obliging endemic; it’s relatively easy to see if your guide knows where to look, and the bright red male will put on wonderful displays. “They’re called leks, where the male bird dances like he’s in a disco trying to attract a female,” says Claire. What’s more, you can see it near Kaieteur Falls – two highlights of Guyana in one day. “We often get incredible sightings there.”

“The elusive jaguar!” says Claire, quoting the tourism material, which often plumps for this phrasing. “We have very healthy populations and if people say ‘we really want to see one’, and are willing to go a bit further into the rainforest via river expedition, then we do see jaguars.” The unofficial stat is that one in every four visits to Guyana results in a jaguar sighting. You’re more likely to see thrilling evidence in the form of massive footprints and ghostly night-time encounters recorded by camera traps. There are also pumas here.