THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 25, 1994 TAG: 9407230040
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
WHEN WE LAST tuned in on Roger Rageot - the former curator of the now defunct Norfolk Museum of Natural History - he was pursuing vampire bats in Ecuador, trapping them nightly in black mesh nets that looked like the hose on an exotic dancer.
Rageot is a rather exotic fellow himself. The son of a French baron, he inherited the title but rarely uses it. In his white suit and beard, he resembles one of those inscrutable and desperate men who hung around the hotel in Joseph Conrad's ``Heart of Darkness.''
These days, Rageot can be found boating up the headwaters of the Amazon looking for museum specimens. The flora and fauna he finds, including bromeliads that resemble orchids - and equally colorful hummingbirds - will eventually find their way into a museum of natural history Rageot is establishing at the Escuelo Politecnica Nacional in Quito, Ecuador.
When he isn't pursuing specimans for the museum, he serves as professor of zoology at Quito University, Ecuador's most prestigious institution of higher learning.
During the 30 years he was a resident here, Rageot spent much of his time studying the Dismal Swamp, which covers about 800 square miles and sprawls across two counties in Virginia and five in North Carolina. No one knows the swamp's fauna better than Rageot.
``I've gone to the Dismal Swamp several times since arriving here a few months ago,'' he said. ``I have been impressed with how much better it looks now than 30 years ago, when nearly all of the trees had been cut into logs,'' he said.
``The swamp is an extraordinary place, and much of the Southern flora and fauna does not thrive north of it. There are over 20 species of snakes. The swamp is one of the richest for species of turtles in the entire world, and they include two kinds of river turtles and painted, spotted, box, musk and mud turtles.''
Rageot says that the butterfly population of the swamp has been reduced but that there are remarkable animals still to be seen all through the swamp.
``One is the eyeless fish, which can be found in small numbers not far from the Jericho Ditch leading into Lake Drummond,'' he said. ``The fish have lived in the very dark, tannic acid-tainted water flowing past cypress trees for so many centuries that they have lost their eyesight. They find their way around in the murky water with barbels as feelers.''
Ever hear someone speak of large salamanders in the swamp? I never did. But Rageot says they are there.
``Two big salamanders live there. One is the amphiuma, which only has two legs, in front,'' he said. ``I have seen 5-foot-long amphiumas in the swamp. And there's a giant salamander called the siren which has a girth as big as my arm and reaches a length of almost four feet. They stay in the muddy bottoms of ditches, so people rarely see them unless they know what they are looking for. But they sometimes wash up on the roads when the ditches flood in the rainy season.''
Rageot's favorite swamp critter is the golden mouse.
``I think it's the most interesting mammal in there,'' he said. ``It builds a birdlike next in the cane brakes or, sometimes, in vines. The best time to see them is at night with a flashlight. The nests are truly marvels of architecture. They are usually made of cane leaves, and the nests get more intricate toward the inside. The mice are quite beautiful in color - the same shade as the golden hamster.''
The fastest creature in the swamp is probably the pygmy shrew, Rageot believes.
``It's one of the smallest mammals in the world,'' he said. ``They are rarely seen. They live below the leaf level and are extremely fast. If you saw one, it would merely catch your eye as a blur.''
Rageot's interest in zoology is a lifelong one that his parents discouraged when he was a youngster living in France.
``My parents thought I should be interested in things that made money,'' he recalled.
``In school my teachers thought I was retarded, too,'' he said. ``I remember finding a dead shrew and skinning it while seated at my desk. . . . I was taken to psychiatrist.''
He leaves for Quito this week to continue work on his natural history museum at the university. ILLUSTRATION: L. TODD SPENCER
Naturalist Roger Rageot, back from Ecuador, finds the critters of
the Dismal Swamp endlessly fascinating.
by CNB