In The News
The Marine Safari - Kayaking Patagonia
CBC Radio Interview
Arthur Black interviews Brian Keating,
Director of Conservation Outreach at the Calgary Zoo
Hey, Basic Black's Man Of the Wild is back with us this morning! Brian Keating of the Calgary Zoo has just returned from a South American adventure that put him face to face with a few amazing creatures and he's here to tell us all about it. Welcome back, Brian!
It's great to be back, Arthur.
Now you spent six weeks in South America. Now where exactly were you and what were you up to?
Now I was splitting my time between two different countries. I was in Argentina for a period of time and in Guyana for the lionshare. I actually lead two groups from the Calgary Zoo down into the outback of Guyana to look for monkeys and birds and anything else that walks, crawls, flies and grows. It was a wonderful tropical experience.
Not your usual summertime cruise, though.
No, definitely not.
Now, I know that you spent a good deal of that time kayaking among huge whale populations that apparently accumulate down there, but I want to start on dry land if I can. You had an encounter with one of Mother Nature's stranger creations - the anteater.
Well, this is the first time I had ever spent time with an anteater. You know, real close in proximity. I've seen anteaters in zoos before - I've never seen them in the wild, but I was right in the Ruckanoonee, in the outback of Guyana with our Calgary Zoo group and there was a friend of mine who operates a little lodge back there and he acquired a baby anteater, I guess it's mother was probably killed - they still hunt them in that part of the world. And this baby anteater had grown quite a bit over the weeks that he had had it and it had learned how to climb out of its exhibit so everyday it would wander the 5 or so acres that this little lodge is situated on and because it's so habituated to people, I was able to follow it and watch it do it's thing. Anteaters are bizarre, Arthur! They've got a tongue that apparently is about, if you were able to pull the whole thing out, is about 2 feet long!
Wow!
And I was able to get right down beside it on my knees with my nose just inches away from the anteater's nose and watch how he maneuvered with his dagger like claws, he has 2 very long claws on each front foot - they're so long that he actually has to turn his hands inward and walk on their wrists, giving them kind of a pigeon-toed appearance.
So he sort of tears up the ground and then sticks the tongue in to do the fine work, does he?
It's just like a can opener! He uses his claw like a can opener - incredibly powerful - pulls up and breaks open these thick, heavily armoured termite mound and then the tongue whips in and out a hundred and fifty times a minute!
Holy smoke!
They eat for only a minute or two on each given termite mound, or ant colony, that they come across and that has the good effect that it doesn't give the ants the time to get organised so they can launch a serious attack but it also allows the anteater to eat just a few insects in each given area and then it moves on.
Uh huh, saves the termites?
Right, it doesn't destroy it's own food source so it can keep coming back day after day.
Wow! But they've got a sticky tongue obviously, have they?
Very sticky. In fact, I was standing there, I was doing something else, I might have been fiddling with my camera or something, and suddenly I felt this warm tongue down my shoe. He had come over and he had seen this lovely crack between the edge of my shoe and my foot and down went the tongue - nearly reached my toes, Arthur, and it left behind a lovely slime trail. I was very impressed. I didn't want to wash my feet I felt so honoured to have that kind of encounter.
Probably quite shocking for the anteater, too.
I hope so.
What else did you come across in the jungle?
Well, one morning was an exceptional morning. It was one of the last days we were there and I got up early at 6 in the morning and met my group and as soon as we got into the forest we were engulfed by a group of Kapuchan monkeys.
Oh, they're the cute ones, aren't they?
They're the organ-grinder monkeys. They're very smart monkeys, very large brains in comparison to their body mass and it puts them right at, pretty well the top of the smartness factor in primates in monkeys. And from there we went deeper into the forest and we were trying to find some small colourful birds that are found only in the canopy of the forest - they're a little bird called Mannequins and we had had good luck there the day before. We weren't having any luck with the mannequins, but all of a sudden, the forest started to shake off into the distance and we stood absolutely still only moving our arms that were holding our binoculars, and within about 10 minutes or so we had probably 30 or so of these brown bearded sackies, another type of monkey that lives high in the canopy, and they were moving right over top of us. They didn't notice us until the last minute, one sacky was kind of down in the mid-canopy - he came over, he looked down, he saw me and you know they've got this weird Bouffant hairstyle that - they've got the kind of hairstyle that you would be frustrated with if the guy in front of you in the movie house wore. They're very bizarre looking monkeys and they've got these big, thick beards. He looked down and he suddenly noticed me. He let out a squeak of terror and then urinated this lovely little sprinkle down on top of me before running back up into the canopy, and once again I felt blessed.
Now was that a comment on your Safari jacket or is that a defense mechanism on the part of the monkey.
I think it's a fear thing - I'm sure if you've ever been frightened you've felt the need...
I think we've got an expression that covers it, don't we...
That's a way, I guess, of getting rid of excess body weight and luggage you don't need to carry if you have to flee quickly and so that might be part of it but I'm sure there's a defense aspect to it as well. We encountered a group of howler monkeys earlier in the trip and exactly the same thing happened and so it's just a way of them making sure that you know that they don't appreciate your company.
Well, now that we got dampened down somewhat, let's go the whole route here. I said that much of your time was spent with whales. Now, where did you see them exactly?
Now we went way down, between the two trips into Guyana, my wife and I flew and joined up with another group of people down in Argentina. There's two biologists that operate out of Canmore and they worked out of Argentina studying penguins and some of the seabirds and sea mammals. They've developed a wonderful relationship with the Government of Argentina and they got a special permit to go into a place that only researchers are allowed to go into: They actually produce a report, so we were part of a scientific expedition to look into a wildlife survey, but it's really a lovely excuse just to get out into some of the wildest landscape I've ever been in with a huge population of Southern Right Whales.
How huge?
Well, it's been estimated that in the bay itself, there can be up to 400 or so whales at any one point in time.
Now how big is a right whale? Mature.
They're big! They're of the great whale variety - anywhere from 50 to 55 tonnes and the biggest can be up to 60 ft. long but they average, apparently about 45 ft. When you're right next to them in the kayak, though, it feels like you're right next to some huge submarine or helicopter landing pad - they're so big, they're so monstrous it's an awesome feeling to be that close to one of these incredible creatures.
Why are there so many whales there?
They come to breed and to give birth in these quiet lagoons just like the grey whales of the Baja Peninsula that you and I have talked about in years past. The grey whales come to the Baja to give birth in the wintertime when their northern waters are useless for feeding territories and the same thing happens down in the south when the crill population of the southern Antarctic waters diminish because of temperature differences because of the winter. The whales move into these quiet warm bays and spend time socialising and just resting the females of course give birth and so they spend a lot of time playing with their youngsters allowing them to suckle milk and the males, then, are in pursuit of the females. This I find very interesting to watch. Sitting in our kayaks, right at the water level, next to a group of a half dozen or so whales, most of them would be males, actually all of them would be males except for the female that was in pursuit and she would try to avoid the advances of the males. But it's a promiscuous mating system, so virtually all the males will mate with that female, probably one of the latter males are the successful males as far as their sperm fertilising the female's egg. But the females tend to force the males to really work for their ultimate goal and they actually roll on their back and you can see their white bellies and pectoral fins sticking up above the water, as the females would hold their breath keeping their genital region inaccessible from the male. And eventually they would have to roll over to get a breath of air and then the male that was quietly waiting holding his breath underneath would have his opportunity. And this would go on and on and on in a beautiful slow motion dance in between the sound would permeate the air of incredibly loud bellowing and belching and moans - a very exciting time, Arthur, especially in the middle of the night.
You're a very lucky man to see the things you do, Brian Keating.
Well, it's an amazing world out there Arthur and it's a real pleasure to be alive at this time when travel is so easy and these opportunities allow themselves to come forward.
Well I'm glad we got a chance to hitchhike. Thanks a lot.
You bet.
That's Brian Keating, he's Director of Conservation Outreach at the Calgary Zoo.
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