Agouti Book Final with Cover
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A GOUTI BOOKLET AND PRODUCERS’ MANUAL The Agouti [Dasyprocta leporina, D. aguti] Booklet and Producers’ Manual Roxann C. Brown-Uddenberg Gary W. Garcia Quinn S. Baptiste Terrence Counand Andrew O. Adogwa Terry Sampson St. Augustine, Trinidad Trinidad and Tobago 2004 A GOUTI BOOKLET AND PRODUCERS’ MANUAL Roxann C. Brown-Uddenberg, Gary W. Garcia, Quinn S. Baptiste, Terrence Counand, Andrew O. Adogwa & Terry Sampson [2004] The Agouti [Dasyprocta leporina, D. aguti] Booklet and Producers’ Manual, First Edition, GWG Publications, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies ISBN 976-95123-0-3 Copyright © 2004 by Gary Wayne Garcia & Roxann Brown-Uddenberg All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or trans- mitted save with the written permission or in accordance with the written provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any license permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE, or under the Copyright Act of Trinidad and Tobago. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publica- tion may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First Edition Published by GWG Publications 24 Sagan Drive, Champs Fleurs, Trinidad Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies ISBN 976-95123-0-3 Printed by TRINPAD DIRECT LIMITED, Marabella, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. Cover Design by Nirmala Ganessingh and inside cover photograph by Gary Wayne Garcia. All materials cited or used for scientific arguments are cited within the text. The publishers have taken every effort to acknowledge the sources of information for scientific purposes, but if they have overlooked any, they will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. ii A GOUTI BOOKLET AND PRODUCERS’ MANUAL The Agouti [Dasyprocta leporina, D. aguti] Booklet and Producers’ Manual Roxann C. Brown-Uddenberg, Gary W. Garcia, Quinn S. Baptiste, Terrence Counand, Andrew O. Adogwa & Terry Sampson Wildlife Farmers’ and Producers’ Booklet #1: The Open Tropical Forage-Animal Production Laboratory [OTF-APL] Department of Food Production Faculty of Science and Agriculture The University of the West Indies St Augustine, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. Professor Richard A. I. Brathwaite Head of Department iii A GOUTI BOOKLET AND PRODUCERS’ MANUAL The Agouti [Dasyprocta leporina, D. aguti] Booklet and Producers’ Manual Roxann C. Brown-Uddenberg1 Gary W. Garcia2 Quinn S. Baptiste1 Terrence Counand1 Andrew O. Adogwa3 Terry Sampson4 1 Graduates, The Open Tropical Forage-Animal Production Laboratory [OTF-APL], Department of Food Production, Faculty of Science and Agriculture The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago West Indies 2 Co-ordinator, The Open Tropical Forage-Animal Production Laboratory [OTF-APL] & Senior Lecturer in Animal Production Department of Food Production, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies e-mail: [email protected] 3 Senior Lecturer in Anatomy, School of Veterinary Medicine Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Mount Hope Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies 4 Technical Assistant, Department of Agricultural Extension and Economics Faculty of Science and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies St. Augustine, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies iv A GOUTI BOOKLET AND PRODUCERS’ MANUAL DEDICATION To all Agouti Lovers, Producers and Consumers, past, present and future v A GOUTI BOOKLET AND PRODUCERS’ MANUAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special acknowledgement must be given to and Mr. Dave Samayah. Also we would like Mr. Shamjeet Singh, who travelled through- to thank all those “Wildlife Farmers” who out Trinidad to assist in the collection of shared their knowledge, animals and experi- the Agoutis. In addition we must also thank ence with us. Additionally we must also thank the following: Miss. Joanne Biswah, Mrs. Mike Morgan [Office of Public Affairs], the Doolarie Bachue, Mr. Patrick Ragoo, and staff of the Small Mammal Unit and the Li- Mr. Alexander Benn, all at the UWI Uni- brary of the National Zoo [Washington DC], versity Field Station, Valsayn, Trinidad, and Mark Rosenthal and the staff of the Lin- Trinidad and Tobago. In the Department coln Park Zoo, Chicago for their assistance of Food Production [DFP] we would also and information. We would also like to thank like to thank Miss Gail Young for help in Mr. Michael Ramrattan who shared freely feeding the Agouti on weekends and for all with us his facilities, ideas and his invention the support she has given us over the years on some practical agouti restraining tech- in many different ways, Mrs Maxwell, Miss niques. He must also be thanked for his use- Andrea Houston and Miss Deniece Bishop ful comments on the booklet. Also to be for their Administrative and Secretarial sup- thanked is Mr Narine Lackhan, former Con- port and Dr Richard Brathwaite for his sup- servator of Forests of Trinidad and Tobago port as Department Head. We would also for his incisive comments on the draft. like to thank Mr. Cicero Lallo and Dr Thanks must also go to Mrs. Yasmin Comeau, Gregory Bourne for their enlightening dis- Curator of the National Herbarium of Trini- cussions and Mr Romano Mac farlane for dad and Tobago, for her help in getting the assistance with the feeding of the Animals accuracy of the scientific names of the plants in the Experimental Unit on weekends. referred to in Table 11. Formal acknowledge- Special acknowledgement must also be ments must also be extended to the Univer- given to Dr. Gabriel Brown, Dr. Nicole sity of the West Indies and the Inter Ameri- Lambie and Dr. Selene Warren from the can Foundation Development Studies Fel- School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of lowship, University of the West Indies, Of- Medical Sciences, The University of the fice of Planning and Programming, The Vice West Indies, Mount Hope. Recognition Chancellery, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica, must also be given to the institutions, which West Indies, as their financial assistance (a helped and these included the staff at the grant of US$2000) was used to build the Emperor Valley Zoo, Port of Spain and the cages for the Agouti experimental unit at the Wildlife Section of the Forestry Division UWI University Field Station. In addition we of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and must thank Miss. Nirmala Ganessingh for Marine Resources [now within the Minis- assisting with the preparation of the print try of Works and the Environment] of Trini- ready layout. Finally our deepest gratitude dad and Tobago for the Agoutis, their data, must go to Mrs. Wendy Lee Yuen, President their time, co-operation and their experi- of The Agricultural Society of Trinidad and ence, which they shared freely with us, in Tobago, for endorsing this publication. particular Dr Carol James, Mr. Kirk Amour vi A GOUTI BOOKLET AND PRODUCERS’ MANUAL FOREWORD Until quite recently Wildlife development in life Production and Management” in the the Commonwealth Caribbean (or M.Sc Degree of the TROPICAL ANIMAL CARICOM Region) has not been given the SCIENCE AND PRODUCTION attention it deserves, probably because most Programme. This development provided the of the member countries of the region are dynamic to promote Wildlife production and Small Island States (SIS). Guyana on the farming in a scientific way, and has allowed South American mainland is a relatively large for the establishment of strong linkages with CARICOM country with extensive tropical Zoo and Wildlife specialists in North America forests and many indigenous tropical Wild- and Europe. With the inclusion of such a life species are found there. Also, in programme within The University (UWI) has Dominica which is one of the larger more come the demand for Producers and Farm- mountainous and forested of the SIS and in ers Manuals on selected Wildlife species. It Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago useful non- is therefore not surprising that the first domestic Wildlife species are present. Some manual, in what it is hoped will be a Series of these species are being threatened at the of Wildlife, was the Agouti (Dasyprocta present time and a few are felt to be endan- leporina). gered. This Booklet entitled: The Agouti The potential for Wildlife farming has ex- (Dasyprocta leporina, D. aguti) Booklet & isted for a long time, but only fairly recently Producers’ Manual has been ably put to- has there been an interest in such activity al- gether by a Team of six (6) scientists, led by though some prospective Wildlife farmers Ms Roxann C. Brown-Uddenberg, the first have reared these animals in captivity on a author, whose research investigated the Ago- hobby basis. In Trinidad and Tobago with uti species. The Team includes the Leader the encouragement of an FAO expert a Wild- (Dr Gary W. Garcia), Dr Andrew Adogwa, life Breeders and Farmers Association of Senior Lecturer in Anatomy in the School of Trinidad and Tobago was formed as early Veterinary Medicine of the UWI Faculty of as 1984. Medical Sciences, other Graduate students and a Technical Assistant. The Booklet sets It is a distinct credit to The University of about to place the Agouti, one of Trinidad’s the West Indies (UWI) Faculty of Agricul- principal Wildlife species and also a key ture and Natural Sciences (as it then was) Wildlife species of the New World, into per- that under the leadership of Dr Gary W. spective especially as it is one of the animal Garcia, Senior Lecturer in Animal Produc- species under threat by human and biotic fac- tion in the Department of Food Production, tors as well as pollution and micro-climatic the move was made to extend animal pro- changes.