1.
Crested Anole
2.
showing brightly-coloured
dewlap used for display.
Image by Robert Eastman.
2. The introduced
Indian Mongoose - a ‘bad
animal’. Image by Gustavo
Lillo.
considerable distances when
extended.
We snap some pictures of
Magen’s Bay, before trekking back
down the path toward the public
beach. Once at sea level, Gustavo
wanders off, hoping to photograph
more birds, while Renata takes me
to the remains of the once-
exquisite arboretum, now a
labyrinthine mass of broken tree
trunks, clinging vines, and tattered
leaves.
in the viewfinder of his camera to
show a pair of weasel-like
creatures chasing each other in
the tall grass.
“Oh,” Renata sighs. “That’s a bad
animal. That’s a mongoose.”
the lizards experienced a ‘shift’ in
dominance. The most common
lizards have been displaced by
less common species.”
At the University of Puerto Rico,
Humacao Campus, associate
professor and herpetologist Neftali
At the outset, the small Indian
Ríos-López concurred, having
Mongoose (Herpestes javanicus) observed the identical phenome-
was brought to the islands to help non. “Some lizards live in the
control the rat population on the
canopy, where they thrive in drier,
sugarcane plantations. However, more sunlit conditions. Because of
the two didn’t interact much, since Maria those drier conditions that
the mongooses are diurnal and
were once exclusive to the canopy
This post-hurricane restoration
rats maraud at night. Instead,
are now extended down to the
project, to improve both the
these carnivores of the civet family forest floor. As a result, those
natural ecosystem and its
(ranked among the top 100 world’s animals are better adapted to
resilience, while honouring the
worst invasive species by the
those conditions and have started
history and legacy of the area, is
IUCN) managed to severely
displacing and substituting
an enormous undertaking that has deplete a number of resident
animals that are adapted to the
been assigned to our guide. “My
species of herpetofauna, including once-cooler conditions.”
first task is to identify the different many of the islands’ snakes.
plant and tree species. Then we’ll Besides voracious predation by
Extreme weather systems will
determine what to keep and how
introduced mammals, including
continue to scourge the islands of
to replant.”
the mongoose, the other biggest
the Caribbean and, from time to
threat to the reptiles and
time, lay waste to much of the
Just as I’m about to comment on
amphibians is loss of habitat due
landscape. But in spite of the
the daunting assignment ahead of to uncontrolled urban and
widespread destruction dealt by
Renata, Gustavo comes crashing commercial development.
Irma and Maria, the ecosystem
through the scrub, excited. “I took
has managed to recover and
a snapshot of some kind of
And, of course, hurricanes. Irma
adapt. Even hurricanes can’t
animal. There were several of
and Maria caused indescribable
vanquish the basic law of ‘survival
them. I don’t know what they are.” chaos to the environment, and
of the fittest’
even fostered a significant change
He hurries alongside the wildlife
in dynamics. Renata explains, “We
specialist and enlarges the image noticed that after the hurricanes,