Biodiversity of the Rewa Head B Zoological Society of London ...

th e ex p e d i t i o n
The expedition ran from the 31 st December 2008 to the 31 st January 2009. Niall and
Rob met with Ash and the rest of the team at Annai on the 31 st and proceeded up the
Rupununi before heading up the Rewa. The next few days were spent motoring up to
Corona Falls, the juncture between the Lower Rewa and Rewa Head, arriving there on
the 3 rd January. The next three days were spent portaging over the string of falls and
cataracts, before motoring on up to the split between East and West Rewa, setting
up the camera trap grid as we went. In this way we worked our way up as far up the
Rewa as was navigationally feasible, before slowly working our way back down the
river, surveying as we went. We took two 7m heavy duty aluminium boats with 15hp
outboard engines owned by Ashley Holland and carried 150 gallons of fuel for the trip,
leaving caches above and below Corona Falls for the return journey. We carried three
GPS units: two Garmin E-Trex and a Garmin GPSmap 60Cx for work under the canopy.
General positioning was conducted using Guyana Survey maps printed at the Survey
Department of Guyana, Georgetown.
Figure 8. Portaging the boats over a cataract upstream of Bamboo Falls.
First base was at the East-West Split at N2° 37.752’ W58° 37.152’, from which we
explored the West branch of the Rewa up to 2°37’ before a series of fallen trees blocked
passage. Three days were spent at “Split Camp” from the 10 th to the 13 th January. From
there we travelled downstream to “Tayra Camp” at N2° 45.358’ W58° 37.415’, erecting
the second netting site, conducting drift transects and searching for sign of giant otter
until the 16 th . The following camp was at N2° 53.697’ W58° 35.225’, known as “Onca
Camp”. We remained here until the 19 th , surveying and netting before moving further
downstream to “Monkey Ladder Camp” at N2° 59.773’ W58° 35.971’. While here we
explored Louis Creek up to N2° 58.381’ W58° 32.799’. We were severely hampered
by inclement weather, experiencing two torrential downpours which lasted for 36hrs
and resulted in the river level rising by 10ft. The final camp above Corona Falls was at
“Powis Camp”, below Powis Falls at N3° 07.901’ W58° 37.896’. We remained at Powis
until the 27 th January surveying and netting, before collecting up the string of camera
traps and portaging our gear back over Bamboo and Corona Falls. The night of the
27 th we stayed at a campsite below Corona Falls, before departing the following day,
motoring the next three days back down the Rewa and Rupununi, reaching Karanambu
on the 31 st of January. In total we spent 22 days above Corona Falls. This report is a
presentation of the wildlife encountered during that time.
10 Biodiversity of the Rewa Head