Research on Neo-Tropical Non-Domestic Animals (Wildlife) Part 2: The Beginning of Neo-tropical Animal Research Within the Department of Food Production, UWI 1996 to 2001

Abstract

This paper is the second in a three-part series. It describes the work conducted at UWI, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago between 1996 to 2001. This report is described from a UWI, St Augustine scholar’s perspective. It is an account of the research work conducted by and the experiences of the author on Neo-tropical non-domestic animal conservation and production during this period. The first paper in this three-part series began by stating the lessons learnt about Neo-tropical animals from the time of the arrival of the Spanish into the New World/Neo-tropics in 1492 to 1995. These lessons were that scientific researchers and policy makers had put Neo-tropical animals on their backburners and that the knowledge, up to 1995, of these animals were contained within the experiences of the zookeepers and animal curators at the modern-day zoos, both within and outside of the Neo-tropics. There was still a lack of the proper understanding of the digestive and reproductive systems of these animals, which was and is the basis for intensive animal production systems or ex situ living conservation. Part 1 highlighted three main events that occurred in 1996: (1) the publication of the book by Juhani Ojasti based on 25 years work in Venezuela at the Universidade Central de Caracas, (2) the establishment of the Intensive Production Unit of Agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) at UWI’s Field Station in Trinidad and Tobago, today this is still in operation after 28 years, and (3) the offering of a graduate elective course “Tropical Zoo and Wildlife Production and Management” at the Faculty of Agriculture, UWI. The early papers arising from the production modelling thinking at UWI are highlighted.