Club Meeting at Copper

24th February 2022 Tropical Rain Forest – Dave Chapman

The grace given by Alan F. made reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what devastating news it was in this day and age.  Our support and sympathies with the Ukrainian people.

Dave’s introduction outlined the fact that his presentation had been set up to deliver to 7 to 9 year old children, so most likely to be suitable to our members and partners!

The talk was in two parts: Amazonia, Brazil and Borneo/Malaysia and he confessed that the opportunities to explore these rain forests were derived              from his role as ‘student recruiter’ for the three universities he “worked” for (Bangor, Nottingham and Loughborough)

In Brazil he was based in Manaus, which allowed some stunning pictures of the confluence of the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers, with their contrasting colours. His excursion into the rain forest was with a local guide who was a caboclo (a person of mixed indigenous Brazilian and Portuguese). They first journeyed along the river bank by a small boat for which Jose had supplied him with an empty tin…yes, to bail the boat out! They made their trip in the evening and Dave spotted a number of pairs of pink dots, which turned out to be the eyes of Cayman (small South American crocodiles).  Jose and Dave slept overnight in hammocks, covered by mosquito nets, with a fascinating array of noises overnight and to be awakened at dawn by the roaring cries of howler monkeys. The following day Jose spotted a tree with an opening at its base and managed to pull out a Vampire bat. Dave was impressed by the many colourful plants and wide range of animals: monkeys, anteaters, sloth, toucans, parrots and ocelots.

On to Borneo where Dave and his companions were warned to ‘beware of Tigers’, but Dave felt they should have added ‘beware of leeches’! Again there was a great variety of plant life, including ‘pitcher plants’,  ‘army ants’ , vipers and of course Orangutans, which he got close to in a sanctuary in Sarawak. He had made a couple of drawings for the children showing the animals and plants for each country and including pictures of the locals in their traditional dress and headgear. He also shared with us the searching questions that the children had raised with him.

Rob thanked Dave for his informative and well illustrated, with ‘props’ presentation and asked members to join him in the normal manner                                          AR