Marc De Ver­teuil

What hap­pens when prey species lose their fear of preda­tors? I came face to face with this ques­tion, lit­er­al­ly, while rid­ing my bi­cy­cle in Ch­aguara­mas.

An agouti is in my path. It sits there, eat­ing some­thing with­out con­cern. I ap­proach it clos­er and clos­er. With a lazy, lack­lus­tre hop, it jumps on­to the verge. Had this agouti lost its fear of hu­man preda­tors? I've on­ly ob­served this fear­less be­hav­iour at the Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre, where hu­mans are pro­tec­tors, not preda­tors. Asa Wright's agoutis are so bold that they'll ap­proach the Great Es­tate House ve­ran­dah to feed in front of cam­era-tot­ing na­ture lovers.

But I wasn't at Asa Wright. This was a rou­tine ride up Mt St Cather­ine, the moun­tain with the "Golf Ball" at its sum­mit; at least that's what I call the huge radar dome op­er­at­ed by the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Au­thor­i­ty.The Golf Ball shares the sum­mit with a near­by radar sta­tion op­er­at­ed by the T&T Coast Guard. Coast Guard ve­hi­cles reg­u­lar­ly ply the road to and from their in­stal­la­tion, but a "No Unau­tho­rised Per­sons" sign at the road en­trance dis­cour­ages any oth­er dri­vers.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/dig­i­tal/new-mem­bers