ANIMAL PLANET ISLAND STYLE Part 1

When I started to work on this page I realized the list of wildlife could almost go on indefinitely. Where do I start? With the most numerous - Goats!

The island is overrun by domestic goats, most not owned by anyone.  They're cute, athletic and pretty animals. You hear the babies calling out to their moms, who answer back as they get closer and closer. Oh! So plaintive, it just tugs on your heart! But they are extremely destructive to the environment. Their feet dig up the fragile, dry soil causing erosion and few plants are safe. They seem to have no value.  No one eats goat anymore. There is no enforcement of any law prohibiting them from wandering lose.

Maybe I Spoke Too Soon

To have a garden here you have to fence in the entire property. The good news is when you prune back branches all you have to do is throw them over the fence and what the goats don't eat the termites will. 

These termites make large nests in trees, giant brown balls. 

Don't ask me why this is entertaining but it's hard to resist poking the nest or a tunnel with a stick. First the soldiers come out "Oh, so you want a piece of me? Someone's gonna die today! I'm ready for you! " Once they see there are no invaders, they go back inside, give the all clear, and the laborers start to repair the hole. They're efficient and fast, and they have to be because they can't dry out.  A hole the size of a pencil will be closed up within 5 minutes. Termites bite and it hurts. You don't want them in your shirt or your socks.

 I've heard they have an unpleasant odor too, if the tunnels are exposed, described as strongly flowery and fecal, but I've never smelled it . Termites will turn a wood pile the size of a VW Beetle into a flat mulchy mass within a year.

 The Pearly Eyed Thrasher, or T'rushie Bird is a Robin sized scavenger. He's an aggressive opportunist, eating anything, even the sandwich from your hand. It's always sad for me to find out an animal I like turns out to be living off another animal, taking their food or a ruthless predator for eggs and nestlings , catching my lizards. Can't we all just get along? For such a scoundrel he has a lovely singing voice. It always surprizes me when I hear it. 

 Kettle ponds like this one catch rainwater and act as sediment filters before sending it into the ocean. This is where you find ducks, herons, and waders. STJ has hundreds of ducks, like the Teal and White Cheeked Pintail, which I think are in this photo. To the right is the Great White Heron.

 Here's a bit of trivia - the way to tell a sheep from a goat is sheep's tails are down. I think they look totally different but hey! Sheep on STJ have no wool, they're bald. They were imported in the mid 19thC and within two years they evolved to be wool less. Too hot! These large herds travel around Coral Bay accompanied by their white egrets.
It's a big island, somebody has to eat it!

 Isn't this baby the CUTEST??????

AWWWW!

Oyster Catchers

A Blue Heron! He came to visit us on the porch one day.

Lots of hermit crabs. Crab farming is going like gangbusters. Today's breakfast was coffee grounds, wrinkled blueberries and multigrain bread. Yum!

Katydid

This is a Brown or Tree Rat. They can be very cute, because they're small like a hamster, but an unfortunate nuisance. They eat fruit, insects and plants, but they will more likely chew through your electrical wiring and dryer vents and take up residence in your house and start multiplying. They will chew through the screens and come into the kitchen , sitting on the counter ripping apart a banana while you sit there watching TV. They'll get out a glass cutter and cut through your window, make a copy of your key.... You get the idea!

The only indigenous mammal on STJ is the Fruit Bat. They are huge! Every mammal here has been brought here - cats, goats, white tailed deer for hunting sports (which are seen swimming the 3 miles to St Thomas!), donkeys, horses, cattle, pigs.... but the bat was always here. They eat fruits and flower nectar. It's a little spooky and disconcerting to be out at night and see this large, dark shadow swooping around the garden, up to a two foot wingspan. As they swoop and circle they scatter wet, red guano on everything. This stuff is like globs of cement. It's hard to get the red stain out of porch furniture, paint surfaces or your laundry (you shouldn't leave your shoes and clothing outside anyway, what are you thinking???). But they're really amazing to watch if you can sneak up and catch one hanging off a papaya eating it. Nom, Nom!

OK, so here's a story. Back in the 1700's a certain group of Scandinavians (Ok ... the Danes) thought it would be a good idea to live here and grow sugar. Along with the slaves they needed to work for them, they brought over Brown Rats in their ships (see above). The rats multiplied until they were such a nuisance the plantation owners decided they had to do something about them. So they opened a cask of Cruzan Rum (Duty Free at K Mart $4.99) , and brainstormed into the night. What they needed was a natural enemy, a predator! 

"I got it!", said Johann Keevenborg, "Let's import Mongooses!" 

"Strålende ja!" they all agreed. "God idé!" *

So a call was made to Sri Lanka.  But the joke is, as it turned out, the Mongoose is diurnal and the Brown Rat is nocturnal, so never an enemy shall meet. Now STJ has a plethora of rats AND mongoosii and a whole different problem.  

By the way, the plural of Mongoose is NOT Mongeese. 

Stay tuned for Part 2!

* ""Brilliant yes!" "Good idea!"
Brown Rat photo from http://www.listofcountriesoftheworld.com/jm-animals.html
Fruit Bat and Mongoose photos from public domain, you really think I got this close to a Fruit Bat?