Seeing is believing

GINA on the BBC Guyana series:

Guyana’s unspoilt, unique beauty has once again received notice as the BBC has done a three hour documentary that is subdivided into one hour slots showing the explorations made by an expert team of international naturalists and film makers as they journeyed north of the Amazon into the uncharted jungles of Guyana.

According to a release by the Bradt Travel Guides, the BBC’s new natural history series; Lost Land of the Jaguar will be aired on BBC for the first time on July 30.

Kirk Smock, author of Bradt Travel Guide to Guyana declared, “Lost land of the Jaguar wonderfully captures Guyana’s flora, fauna, and overall beauty and I expect that it will generate much interest in the country from potential visitors and hopefully increase Guyana’s minimal tourism numbers.”

UK's Nancy Banks-Smith on the BBC Guyana series:

The title Expedition Guyana seems to have been changed briskly to Lost Land of the Jaguar (BBC1) for extra oomph and audience appeal. Guyana, a former British colony in South America, has the largest virgin rainforest on earth. This, as Longfellow remarked, is the forest primeval. An expedition set out to explore it, hoping to pre-empt the loggers by proving its unique worth to the world.

At first blush there was no one at home, or they were hiding behind the sofa. Except for the insects. Dear God, the insects! Fortunately, the expedition contained an entomologist, the endearingly enthusiastic Dr George McGavin from Oxford University, who could usually be found stuck inside a rotten fallen tree, admiring insects eating each other. ("The whip spider goes tickle tickle and the cricket jumps forward into the jaws of the spider.") He would emerge dishevelled and with some difficulty ("I don't think I've had as much fun in a log for a long time"). When Justine Evans (whom I took to be a canape specialist but turned out to be a canopy specialist) heard piercing cries of agony from her perch up a tree, she said calmly, "George has found an army-ant colony from the sound of it. You can hear him howling in pain. A crazy lot, entomologists.

Especially George." Shaking ants from his pants, George, a fair-minded man, said, "Entomologist nil. Ants 1."

All fine and itchy, but what about the jaguar? Or should the correct title be Land of the Lost Jaguar? A camera trap was set to film giant otters and, in the night, something tripped it. A jaguar posed for a while on a fallen tree, then padded slowly forward towards the camera, swinging its hips. The entire expedition, watching this catwalk, applauded spontaneously.