A New Matamata Species. Now there are two

The bizarre Matamata from South America was always thought of as one species, Chelus fimbriata. It did though seem odd that the one species is present in both the Amazon and in the separate river drainages in northern South America. In the 1990s some morphological differences were found in specimens from these distinct geographical regions. Now it has been established using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA that the two populations separated about 12.7 million years ago, the time the Orinoco Basin in the north was formed. Matamatas living in the Orinoco and Rio Negro Basins and in the Essequibo drainage are morphologically and genetically distinct from those in the Amazon Basin and the Mahury drainage. The authors of the new paper have, therefore, split the old species into two: Chelus orinocensis from the former with C. fimbriata retained for the latter.

I have only seen one Matamata, other than those in zoos, and that was in the semi-wild state. During our trip to Guyana in 2006 we stayed for a couple of days at Rock View, a lodge in Annai on the Rupununi River, a tributary of the Essequibo. There in a large concrete tank lived a large Matamata which had been collected locally. The woman who looked after it climbed into the tank and lifted it out so that we could see and photograph it. This magnificent chelonian, which feeds  by sucking its prey into its mouth by a rapid expansion of the pharynx, was obviously of the newly described species, Chelus orinocensis.

Showing the location of Annai in Guyana. The Essequibo River reached the Atlantic to the north

  

Vargas-Ramírez M, Caballero S, Morales-Betancourt MA, Lasso CA, Amaya L, Martínez JG, Viana MS, Vogt RC, Farias IP, Hrbek T, Campbell PD, Fritz U. 2020. Genomic analyses reveal two species of the matamata (Testudines: Chelidae: Chelus spp.) and clarify their phylogeography, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution148, doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106823.

Sánchez-Villagra MR, Pritchard PCH, Paolillo A, Linares OJ. 1995. Geographic Variation in the Matamata Turtle, Chelus fimbriatus, with Observations on its Shell Morphology and Morphometry. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 1, 294-300.

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Peter Dunn

I started to write this article a couple of days ago. That evening I found from Tim Melling a tribute on Flickr to Peter Dunn, the co-leader of that Naturetrek trip to Guyana, who had died earlier that day. Peter, a retired policeman from Scarborough, was well-known to birders in Yorkshire was well as to Naturetrek clients both as a leader and as compiler of those essential checklists. Our abiding memory is of Peter walking along a baking hot track wearing the Wellington Boots he had, after experience leading trips in Belize, wisely brought with him. With Flowers of Sulphur applied liberally to his thick socks he avoided the dreaded chiggers; the rest of the party did not.

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Diane McTurk (1932-2016): The ‘Otter Lady’ of Guyana

Diane McTurk with two of her
otters. From Wilderness Explorers,
the ground agents for many
wildlife tours in Guyana

The death in Guyana of Diane McTurk in December 2016 went unreported in Britain. Lack of coverage was surprising in view of her family’s appearance in two works by national treasures: Gerald Durrell’s Three Singles to Adventure published in 1954 and David Attenborough’s BBC Zoo Quest to Guiana in 1955 with the book published in 1956. By contrast, in Guyana and the Caribbean her death was reported widely.

In her later years Diane (pronounced Dee-Ann) became well known for establishing in 1983 a tourism business at the family’s Karanambu ranch in the Rupununi grasslands of Guyana and for rearing rescued orphaned Giant Otters (Pteronura brasiliensis). Not only did she learn how to rear them but successfully reintroduced many of them to the wild. When we were at Karanambu in 2006 Diane told us that the otters had been—and to a some extent still were being—hunted, the orphaned young being left to die. She reared over forty with, fortunately, the supply eventually drying up. The hand-reared otters became incredibly tame, following Diane or her helpers down to the river for a swim, a play with the children watching their mothers washing clothes and to fish. The otters got through enormous quantities of fish caught each day at the river. While the otters were at the river a sharp eye was kept for the pack of wild otters. They are fiercely territorial and would have killed the hand-reared interlopers. A call from Diane soon had them back to heel and they were lead back to the lodge where they had a cosy box to sleep in.

Diane McTurk had an interesting life flitting between a life in Guyana and England. Schooled as an actress but realising she did not have the talent required, she worked in public relations for the Savoy Hotel. And that explained why staying at Karanambu was such an easy experience. The brick building and thatched roof may have been basic but there was everything there that a guest might need—it was a Savoy experience combined with country house weekend dining—hundred of miles from the nearest city. A variety of public relations and business development jobs in Guyana and London followed, as for a time she flitted between the two countries. She was though firmly Guyanan having been treated, she said, by her London contemporaries as just a ‘colonial’.

Politically active—and judging by the photographs and literature in our quarters—a strong supporter of Cheddi Jagan (1918-1997) who fell foul of one of the periodic madnesses of British and US foreign policy in the 1960s, Diane also, it is reported, raised support for the defence of those accused after the Rupununi Uprising of 1969 and who were eventually acquitted.

But what links talking to Diane in the searing heat of the gravel-covered yard at Karanambu (kept clear of plants to reduce the number of biting insects near the buildings) and a former mining village twenty miles inland from where I am writing this? The first McTurk in what was then British Guiana was Michael. Sir Michael McTurk was born in New Cumnock, Ayrshire in 1785. He graduated in medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1810 to become principal medical officer in British Guiana for 34 years. He was responsible for ensuring that Georgetown, the capital and centre of the sugar industry, had a water supply both for the human population and to irrigate the sugar fields. McTurk was concerned with the plight of the slaves in the country; he was knighted 1839 for his efforts on their behalf. After the passing of the Abolition of Slavery Act 1833, he brought in a local measure ensuring the full emancipation of the slaves. He died in 1844.

The next generation of McTurks was in Liverpool with Sir Michael’s son having married into a family of shipowners. On hearing the stories of his grandfather, the grandson, another Michael, took off in one of the family ships to Georgetown. That Michael, Diane’s grandfather, became Protector of the [Amer]Indians for the whole Essequibo region and her father Edward ‘Tiny’ McTurk—known for his association with Durrell and with Attenborough—was born at Bartica. After service in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War, ‘Tiny’ McTurk decided he needed a proper job so joined the balata industry.

I had previously only associated balata with the covering of expensive golf balls for professionals (back-spin is easier to achieve but at the expense of distance) that were used until very recently. But I now find that In the 1920s balata was booming, being used to cover the underwater cables linking countries and continents, and it came from a tree common in Guyana and the West Indies, Manilkara bidentata. The latex-like material was tapped, like rubber, by cutting gashes in the bark and then left to coagulate in trays. Balata is tough, inelastic and water resistant but can be softened by heating.

So balata was big business and McTurk was given the job of finding somewhere suitable as a collection station. Karanambu did not flood in the wet season and McTurk established the balata station and cattle ranching there in 1927. Diane returned to Karanambu in 1977 and saw that diversification into tourism at a time of dwindling income from traditional activities was essential.

One of our fellow guests remarked as we left Karanambu in its ancient Land Rover in a remark that could have applied to Diane as to the vehicle: ‘They don’t build ‘em like that any more’.

Here is a very short extract from a video I took of Diane with one of her otters in March 2006:

You can see more on the unupdated website of the Karanambu Trust, set up by the McTurk family in 1997, with more information here, here, here and here.

NOTE ADDED 23 July 2021

Emmanuelle Wiecha, a documentary filmmaker based in Montreal tells me that the final Giant Otter Diane McTurk rescued and named 'Buddy' was transferred to the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida and recently sired two litters.