Tropical Fauna
Little Antilles vegetation is world known, but the same cannot be said of their fauna. Many animals, like the agouti, the opossum and some monkey’s species, as the green monkey living in Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, arrived to these islands with men. The mongoose was introduced to control rat and snake population. However, rats are night animals, so the mongoose has become a bird’s predator and garbage scavengers.

The islands in the middle of the chain received less migrant species, birds and other animals. However, the relative isolation of some animals has made them evolve into native species: Dominica and Montserrat are the only countries where you can find this huge toad commonly known as mountain chicken. Dominica, St. Vincent and St. Lucia have their own species of parrots. You can’t always see them, but you can appreciate the humming birds, flying with their giddy fluttering towards a near hibiscus. There are also lots of other birds, but if you want to see the most exotic, you’ll have to go to Trinidad, where you can find more than 400 different species. Lizards and salamanders are everywhere. It’s harder to find an iguana because they are protected animals. The habitat of the only poison snake, the fer de lance, is St. Lucia and Martinique.       

United to Land
Except Trinidad, none of these little islands has more than a million people. Many of them have fewer than 10,000 people, like Anguilla, Nevis and Saba. They are all mostly rural. Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad, is a modern cosmopolitan city. However, most of the capitals look like small European cities. Though younger generations are growing under the mediate influence of television and Internet, the strong national identity is very close to the land and the use given to it.

The stereotype phrase of a paradise land is tempting to describe the purity of some corners of this region. However, it’s a distorted image, especially if you consider some events in their history, those referred to slavery and colonialism. Even today, poverty forces many to migrate and abandon this “paradise”.

The books of many Caribbean authors are essential to understand the life of the Caribbean people and their history. Maybe the best the one by St. Lucia’s poet Derek Walcott, who, through his poems, gave an excellent account of history, many times tragic, of the islands.

A New Source of Income
Only in recent times economy has passed from agriculture to tourism. This is now the major income source of the region, producing jobs and dollars. As it happened with the first colonists, who changed the inner physiognomy of the islands with the massive cutting down of woods to make place for tobacco, first, and then cacao and sugar cane plantations. The tourism industry has forever transformed the coast shape. Harbors where fishermen used to go, and the mangrove swamps where colonies of birds had their nests, are now tourist land.

Some of the frail ecosystems of these little islands, are now facing the danger of extinction, due to the hundreds of thousands of visitors. Local ecological groups are fighting to stop the destruction of mangrove swamps, to be replaced by new hotels. Likewise, they have accused that anchors of great cruisers, as well as some divers, have caused severe damage to the coral reefs, apart from the threat that massive tourism represents to minority societies.

Now, the key word is eco-tourism. Some of the island’s governments, like Dominica and Trinidad, where there is no ”sand, sea and sun” tourism, have designed a plan to allow the expansion of this sector.

Visitors are also starting to discover that the Caribbean has many more things than those you can see while taking sun laying on the beach; the survival of diversity of these islands just might be in their hands.

Devastating Hurricanes
A hurricane is formed when atmospheric pressure decreases suddenly with respect to the air in lower stratums. Most of them are born in the Atlantic coast. Wind speed is usually above 240 km/hour, though in the hurricane’s eye, sometimes with many kilometers of diameter, there’s total calm.

Hurricanes can reach a width of 800 km, and travel northwest at a speed between 19 and 24 km/hour, though this increases when the hurricane starts to lose power. On their way they raze cities, houses and crops, though now, fortunately, there are few victims.

The National Center for Hurricanes in Miami, prepares, with six years anticipation, a list of the hurricanes with their names in alphabetical order. The roots of this tradition goes back to the Second World War, when the American forces, named storms after the names of their brides. In 1979, male names were used just to equal those of women.

Some of the most important hurricanes have been; David, that devastated Dominica in 1979; Hugo that did the same with Montserrat in 1989; and Luis, which in 1995, destroyed the Leeward Islands.

The Cunning Mongoose
Mongooses were introduced in 1870 to control the population of rats and snakes, but they have become a pest destroying bird nests’ and garbage scavengers.

How to preserve ecology

• Choose a hotel with native owners and employees and that use local products.
• Ship on one of those excursions to watch whales swimming in these waters.
• Leave the coral for the fishes, don’t stand on it, and never drop anchors on a reef.
• Ask for permission before taking pictures.
• Practice aquatic sports not needing motors.
• Don’t go out from paths crossing the tropical jungle. Use a guide.
• Tape or inform any kind of contamination you see.