Hunting animals at the Biodome and insects at the lnsectarium? This is the work of Carl Foisy and his team, who ensure the protection of the precious animals of these institutions by capturing those who try to join them from outside.
Mice, cockroaches, ants: the exterminators’ prey is much less spectacular than the macaws, marmosets or lynxes that visitors come to admire in their thousands. But the hunting ground makes the task particularly complex.
“We live with the living,” explains Mr. Foisy, who has worked in the field for more than 20 years. “It’s a very interesting, very stimulating type of environment.”
During a visit carried out with The Presshe explained that only mechanical traps are allowed in the rooms where the animals live. Zoologists would not want a resident to be able to poison himself directly or by eating a mouse that has consumed a rodenticide, for example.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Only mechanical traps are allowed in rooms where animals live.
Mr. Foisy checks several rocks to find the one that hides a trap, set by a colleague. They are so well camouflaged in the decor that the specialist makes mistakes himself a few times.
His team catches around ten mice every week, particularly in traps located outside the Biodome.
In the warm rooms of the Biodome, “there is food, there is drink, it is warm, there is something to nest in,” summarizes Nicolas Gruyer, owner of the establishment. Hence the interest of intruders who would prefer to live in the tropical forest all year round rather than in the cold Montreal winters.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Tamarins – small orange monkeys – are animals very susceptible to hepatitis, a disease that can be transmitted by mice.
Disease vectors
Nicolas Gruyer is happy to live with the idea of eliminating certain intruders, despite the Biodome’s conservation mission. Or rather: because of its mission.
This is because the Biodome is entrusted with extremely precious animals by international programs, in the hope of seeing them reproduce.
“I need to prevent the potential transmission of diseases to succeed in my mission of protecting threatened, even endangered, or even extinct species,” he explains, observing his rainforest residents.
Mice, for example, are vectors of diseases that could wreak havoc.
“They can carry diseases that can be transmitted through feces [excréments]through urine or if an animal were to consume them,” he said.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Nicolas Gruyer, director of the Biodome
New World primates, such as tamarins […]we really don’t want them to get sick because of mice that may be carrying the bacteria. E. colisalmonella or others.
Nicolas Gruyer, director of the Biodome
Tamarins – small orange monkeys – are also “very susceptible to hepatitis,” continues the trained biologist. “Mice can transmit this disease.”
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
At the Biodome, certain animals often referred to as “vermin” are welcome – in reasonable numbers.
Ecosystems
If there is “zero tolerance for rodents” at the Biodôme, according to Carl Foisy, other animals often described as “vermin” are welcome – in reasonable numbers.
The cockroaches from Suriname, for example, arrive with the tropical plants that the Biodome teams must plant to provide a suitable living environment for the jungle animals. “With insects, there is no issue of pathogen transfer,” explains Nicolas Gruyer.
Cockroaches are not alone.
“We have stick insects [des insectes-branches] that came naturally with the plantations,” Nicolas Gruyer reported. “Yes, they eat leaves, but it’s a population that regulates itself. We have birds that, perhaps, also consume them. It’s an ecosystem, there are natural regulations that take place.”
For everything else, there is Carl Foisy and his team.