Wildlife of Guyana

Well, once again, it has been too long since our last post. That's what tends to happen when it's my turn to write the blog (Crystal.) We have had a very busy couple of months, but then, we always seem busy since we came to Guyana. We have recently had an out flux and then influx again of fellow "need-greaters" or, as another brother recently put it "self-supporting missionaries".

 

You may have read in a previous blog about some sisters that came here to help out with the sign language field by the names of Sarah and Jeri. A picture of Sarah made it to the blog, but somehow, Jeri got overlooked. This is my shout out to Jeri (sitting in the middle), since I enjoyed serving with this sister so much. This was a picture of us taking refuge from the rain at a local shop.

 

 More photos of others that have come will be included in the next blog. I really have to get my pictures organized a little better. In the meantime, I hope you will be satisfied with a few pictures of the local wildlife. As most of you know, we are living in fairly rural area of Guyana, which means domestic animals everywhere. But we also have our fair share of wild animals. For instance, small herds of wild horses roam the savanna nearby, and sometimes they roam into the neighborhood looking for food.

 

This horse and her foal were blocking the road as I was walking out to meet for service one morning. I think this horse does belong to someone, but there are plenty of wild ones around as well.

 

A lot of people like to keep animals that have been captured in the interior as pets.

 

 

This little monkey belongs to a return visit of mine. They are funny and love attention from visitors. This one likes to "hug" your arm. They can also be very naughty and sometimes bite. Personally I feel sorry for the little guys and would love to set them free, but it is kinda cool to see so many of them out and about.

 

 

Yes, believe it or not, there are wild donkeys here. Descendants of domestic donkeys that have simply over bred and been let loose. These guys (among others), will invade your yard if you leave the gate open, as this picture proves. Male donkeys can actually be pretty aggressive toward one another. They can be very territorial, especially during mating season. One day, a sister from Trinidad was walking with me, and two male donkeys began fighting right in front of us. As one donkey began biting the neck of another, two men ran out with cutlasses (machetes). She thought they were going to cut the donkeys, but they used the side of the blade to "spank" the wild donkey off of their domestic one. We later laughed at how scared she was, but at the time she seemed pretty traumatized.

 

More wildlife...

 

 Big....Giant....Spiders!

This one was in our house a couple of months ago. We hated to kill it, but since we couldn't identify it, and didn't know if it was poisonous or not, it had to go. It actually looks smaller in this pic because it was already dead it sorta shriveled up a bit. It is not a tarantula, but we have seen them here. Scott actually had one crawling across his chest in service the other day, but decided not to wait for a picture to be taken before knocking it off. Imagine that!

 

Okay, so enough with the scary wildlife we are faced with on a daily basis. This is just a few pictures of some of the gorgeous birds we get to see all of the time just flying wild.

A blue sake. Not the greatest pic, but you can see his beautiful color.

 

 

Green parrots. These guys are everywhere. They usually fly in pairs and make a very distinctive call when flying with each other.

 

 

Kiskadee. The most common bird in Guyana. We see these every day.

 

Toucans!

We have seen these in flight, and perched, though it is very rare to see them in our area. Scott actually got a picture of another variety of Toucan, but I can't seem to find it in our files. ( I told you I really need to organize our pictures) Will post it later when I find it.

 

 

"Jesus Bird" not really sure what the actual name is for this bird, but all the locals call it a jesus bird, because it appears to be able to walk on water. Their beaks are brightly colored and remind me of candy corn.

 

 

Last but not least,  just to make everyone a little jealous, this is a picture of one of the trees we have growing in our yard.

 

That's right! Fresh bananas growing on two of our trees right now as we speak. And I must say these are the sweetest, best tasting bananas I've ever tasted in my life. I guess it is true everything tastes better when you grow it yourself...

 

Till another blog...much love to all!