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.