The rusty millipede is originally from Southeast Asia, but has been introduced to many parts of the world, including St. Martin. Millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment, because each body segment is basically to segments fused into one. They mostly eat decaying organic matter, and the descendants of the millipedes were probably one of the first animals […]
Today I mailed out almost 100 copies of the new edition to about 75 different locations, mostly to folks from the US who backed the Kickstarter campaign to finance the printing of the book. It took some doing – many hours of doing – but it was pretty exciting, too. If you are a Kickstarter backer from the US who […]
Some grasshoppers and katydids on St. Martin have different color forms within the same species. Often, there is a green form and a brown form, as with this grasshopper. Studies of some species have found that the green form is more common in the spring, when vegetation is green, and the brown form is more common in the late summer, […]
During the Wildlife Beats workshop at the Book Fair, we were discussing fires as a periodic event that impacts wildlife. One of the attendees brought up the fact that traditionally portions of fields have been burned by livestock owners in order to control tick populations. I’m not sure how often that happens today, but apparently ticks are currently a serious […]
Several years ago, I was hiking the hills behind Grand Case when I noticed a young goat caught with its head stuck in a wire fence (1st photo). It had stuck its head through to eat something, but couldn’t get out because of its horns. Although it was very afraid by my approach, I was able to free the young […]
Like other insects, butterflies use heat from the sun to warm up their bodies. That’s why they are more likely to rest with their wings open in the morning, when they are trying to warm up. On this tropical checkered skipper, you can also see that the body and the inner portion of the wings are dark, which also aids […]
On St. Martin, we have two native species of Anolis lizards, Anolis pogus (top in the photo) and Anolis gingivinus (bottom in the photo). They are both considered part of the “bimaculatus” group of anoles that live in the Northern Lesser Antilles, and as such are generally thought to come from a common ancestor arriving from the Greater Antilles. It […]
Help me represent St. Martin at the 2013 meeting of the Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds. This year’s meeting takes place at St. George’s University in Grenada and I have been invited to present to the society about my book and my wildlife education program. It is also a fantastic opportunity for me to learn more […]
The St. Martin Book Fair was fantastic once again. I was lucky enough to have a few copies of the new edition of my book available, and hopefully the folks who got a copy are enjoying it. I also had the opportunity to do a workshop – Wildlife Beats – about natural and human-influenced cycles on St. Martin and how […]
Sleepin’ lizards! Learn more about a day (and night) in the life of St. Martin’s wildlife and much more at the Wildlife Beats workshop tomorrow at 11am at University of St. Martin. In the workshop, we’ll discuss the various cycles that influence St. Martin’s wildlife, from periods as short as a day to as long as an ice age. The […]