iHerp Australia Issue 11 | Page 44

The Eye of the Storm. Herps and Hurricanes in the Caribbean. 1. Vickie Lillo examines how the herpetofauna of the US Virgin Islands has rallied in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria. T he winds howled, unremitting, as they swept across the island, snapping trees in two, as if they were toothpicks. Along with the powerful gales came pounding rain and churlish surf, which hammered the wetlands’ red mangroves and shredded vegeta- tion into pulp. With sustained winds of 185mph (just under 300kph), Hurricane Irma ripped through the US Virgin Islands on Wednesday, September 6 th , 2017. A week before Irma, Renata Platenberg, wildlife biologist, reptile ecologist, and assistant professor of Natural Resource Management at the University of the Virgin Islands, confided that her husband had told her, “Honey, we’re gonna lose the house.” Hurricane Maria. Incredibly, as the tropical cyclone rampaged, Renata recalled that, “The frogs were still singing!” One can imagine Gunther’s White- lipped Frogs (Leptodactylus Luckily, they didn’t. They rode out albilabris) joining a chorus of ‘pink- the tempest in their friends’ pink-pink’ from the muddy banks concrete home. “I was scared sick, where they were hunkered down. though,” Renata admitted. Or their nemeses, the much larger Cuban Tree Frogs (Osteopilus septentrionalis), lurking in the Fourteen days later, on September 20 th , still reeling from verdure, attempting to ride out the Irma’s direct hit, the islands typhoon. The latter species is received another battering from highly invasive, and has become established in Florida and Hawaii, as well as throughout the Caribbean, due to its propensity to eat just about anything it can fit in its mouth, and to mate at any time of the year. As with all disasters, the tides eventually recede (taking sand and coastline with them), the downpours subside, and the Category 5 blusters peter out, leaving behind an environment of unimaginable devastation. Platenberg expressed her concerns to the organization 2.