Colin Donihue

The trip to Redonda was a huge success and even more importantly, the restoration project is going tremendously well! Last year, Redonda was dusty and dry, overrun with goats and rats that were mowing through the vegetation and hurting the islands’ unique mix of plants and animals, including three endemic lizards.

This year, the island is now rat- and goat-free and the lizards and birds are flourishing. It seemed like there were birds nests everywhere you stepped, and every time we rounded a corner, new birds were squawking their heads off — even the little fluff-ball babies got into the racket.

The lizard populations have increased tremendously. I’ll save lizard details for the next post though so stay tuned. The rest of this week has been focused on analyzing the data and jump starting some science communication and outreach while I’m in-country. I gave a talk to about 60 very enthusiastic people, including a lot of school kids and biology majors at the local university. The questions were terrific – everyone was incredibly attentive – and I even got a cheer when I posted my preliminary bar graphs. That’s a first!

I even got to do a live TV interview on Antigua and Barbuda Today, the morning show for the country. The anticipation was nerve-racking but getting to talk with the host about the important work happening on Redonda was really exciting. I’ll post the video as soon as I have some decent internet – I’ve had to start this post multiple times because the internet has disappeared on me. I’m leaving for Miami in a few hours where I’ll present some of these results in a symposium about current work in Anole ecology and Evolution. I’ll be in Miami for 48 hours before flying back to Paris. I’ll try to sneak in some more picture uploads tomorrow on fast internet and will be writing longer stories next week from France. Stay tuned!