The black caiman is a crocodilian it is a carnivorous reptile that lives along slow moving rivers and lakes, in the seasonally flooded savannas of the amazon basin, and in other freshwater habitats in south america.Once common, it was hunted to near extinction primarily for its commercially valuable hide it is now listed as conservation dependent. The black caiman has a bony ridge over red eyes and scaly skin. The skin coloration helps with comouflage during its nocturnal hunts. but may also help absorb heat.The black caiman is one of the largest reptailes and is the largest member of the family alligatoridae they can grow up to 16.5 ft long making it the largest predator in the amazon basin most adults black caimans are 10-14ft with older males rarely growing larger than 16.5ft. They eat fish,including piranhas,catfish, and other animals,birds,turtles, and land dwelling animals like the capybara and deer when they come to water to get a drink.Larger specimens can take tapirs,anacondas, and is capable of predation on potentially deadly predators such as pumas, jaguars but any caiman over 16ft in lenght generally has no natural predator,as is true of other similar sized crocodilian species( given the size,weight and immense biting strength) their teeth are designed to grab but not rip so they swallow their food whole after drowing it .Immature specimens eat crustaceans and insects their main predator is humans who hunt them for leather or meat.
The 1856 one cent stamp called " black on magenta" of british guiana is regared as the rarest and most expensive stamp in the world only one specimen is now know to exist.It is imperforate, printed in black on magenta paper and is features a sailing ship along with the colony's latin motto "damus petimus que vicissim (we give and expect in return) in the middle four thin lines frame the ship the stamp's country of issue and value in small black upper case lettering in turn surround the frame.the1c magenta was part of a series of three definitive stamps issued in that year and wasintented for use on lacal newspapers. The other two stamps a 4c magenta and 4c blue were intended for letter postage the issue came through mischance. An anticipated delivery of stamps never arrived by ship in 1856,so the local postmaster.E.T.E. dalton, authorised a printer,joseph baum and william dallas, who were the publishers of the offical gazette newspaper in georgetown, to print out an emergency issue of three stamps dalton gave some specifications about the design,but the printer chose to add a ship a image of his own to design on the stamp series.
Fort Zeelandia is located on fort island, a fluvial island of the essequibo river delta not to be confused with fort zeelandia in paramaribo,suriname.This fort was built in 1743 and is among the oldest structures in guyana they were two buildings on the island the other was the court of policy that had three rooms a church, the other room was uses for policy making and the last one was for auctioning slaves.
Kyk-Over-Al was a dutch fort in the colony of essequibo, in what is now guyana.It was constructed in 1616 on a inlet in the mouth of the mazaruni river.it once service as the centre for the dutch administrive of the county,but now only ruins are left the name kyk-over-al derivers from the dutch for see-over-all a reference to the commanding view of the river from the fort.The dutch faced their first serious attacks in 1665 when major john scott was sent by the governor of barbados,lord willoughby,to invade the settlements in the pomeroon by the time,prosperous sugar plantations were already established in that area
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Arapaima the largest scaled fresh water fish in the world lives only in northeastern south america particularly in the guiana shield and the amazon river basin.The makushi,the second largest indigenous tribe in guyana and the third largest in brazil they call the fish warapai.Arapaima reaches lenghts of up to 10ft and weights a little over 450lbs the swim bladder of the arapaima is open to the pharynx and the fish uses the bladder which is rich in blood vessels as a lung.Adult arapaima surfaces every 20minutes and juveniles every 5minutes for gulping air due to their ability to breath air from the surface arapaimas can survive depletion of oxygen in the water and extensive drough periods by burrowing in the mud.The father guarding the eggs is know to take them in his mouth and move them to another location. the young are led by a male in the group once there are able to swim.
The Parliament building designed by joseph hadfield was built on a foundation of greenheart logs.The foundation was laid in 1829 and,in april 1834,the structure,stuccoed to resemble blocks,was complete having been complete,the building was formally handed over to a committee of the court of policy in august 1834.Those present were John Hadfield and George Booker the building was constructed at a cost of $50,000 pounds.In 1875 cesar castellani complete the installation of a sunken panelled ceiling of the parliamentary chamber in the the eastern wing of the parliament building.The chamber also features an elaborately carved teak speaker chair,an independence gift from the goverment of India; a table and three chairs for the clerks and a sergeant-at-arms chair an independence gift from the british house of commons; paintings of Arthur Chung guyana's first president 1970-1980 also Forbes Burnham guyana's first executive president 1980-1985 and a gilded clock depicting the rays of the sun a gift from demerara company limited 1954.The walls of parliament chamber are panelled with mahogany floor length shuttered windows allows light and air to enter,and north facing windows have a small balconies.The floor is made of local greenheart wood. Parliament building is a excellent example of 19th century renaissance architecture. It is only one of two domed buildings in georgetown.
The history of the cinemas in guyana dates back to the 1920's when the gaiety,which was the first cinema in guyana stood by brickdam roman catholic presbytery and showed silent movies. the gaiety burn down in 1926, and was soon follow by other cinemas like metro on middle street which became empire the london,which became the plaza and astor on church and waterloo streets which opened in august 1940 then there was metropole on robb and wellington streete; the rialto which became rio on vlissengen road; also the hollywood in kitty and strand de luxe in georgetown
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The New Amsterdam public hospital designed by Ceasar Castellani a maltese architect employed by the public works department of british guiana during the 19 century. This edifice is one of the most beautiful structures in guyana arramged like a pavillion hospital, with the wards placed end to end this edifice was construced in 1878.
The yellow banded poison dart frog dendrobates leucomelas is a poison dart frog from the dendrobatidae family. most notably found in venezuela and guyana. this amphibian is normally found in very humid conditions in tropical rain forests,close to fresh water it is often found on flat rocks,trees,plants and the left litter of the forest floor. this species is unlike most frogs because they are active during the day. this frog is poisonous because they eat ants and small insects that have toxins in their bodies.if an animal eats the frog,it will become very sick.
Historic Queenstown:
This section of georgetown was named after queen victoria and was purchased by the town council from Quintin Hogg, a planter, in 1877 to protect the city from unsanitary pig pens and prevent the erection of poorly construction buildings by its proprietor. in the jubilee year of queen victoria, it was proposed by the town town council that the streets be named after the queens children. however this decision was not favorably received by the inhabitans of this area of the city. laluni and Anira streets were named after tributaries of the lama a tributary of the Mahaica river forshaw street was named after the mayor of the city.
We have two fresh water dolphin in guyana the boto and the tucuxi :
the boto are 8 feet long and weight 300 pounds they feed on crabs,fish and sometimes turtles and travel in groups.
tucuxi: these dolphins are related the tucuxi may leap out of the water, called breaching,somesault,tails-splash. these dolphins are knowns as pink river dolphin.
