Conserving Maria Islands Nature Reserve

Hello everyone in cyber land.  Hailing from the sunny Caribbean island of Saint Lucia I am Saphira Hunt.  I live at the southern most tip of this lush and green island in a small fishing community called Vieux Fort which is home to the twin islands Maria Major and Maria Minor.  They make up the Maria Islands Nature Reserve and are home to 5 endemic reptiles;including the world's rarest snake, the Saint Lucia Racer, the Pygmy Gecko, the Tree Gecko, the Worm snake and the saint Lucia Whiptail lizard.

I work for the Saint Lucia National Trust (SLNT) who's mandate is to conserve and protect Saint Lucia's Natural and Built Heritage.  The Maria Islands Nature Reserve was given to the SLNT to conserve by the government.  The conservation works we do on the islands helps preserve it for all the species there especially the Saint Lucia Whiptail lizard which gives it a safe haven to run around, lay eggs and feed away from predators.  The main predators of the Whiptail lizard are rats, cats and humans.  Yes kids humans are a threat to the whiptail population.  Sadly the activities of humans on these offshore islands can be harmful.  For example some humans visits these islands and leave behind plastic bottles, some plastics float from the main land over to Maria Islands, if a Whiptail lizard were to be trapped in there the hot sun would kill it.  As a result of this on all of our outings to Maria Island s we do garbage collection.  Another major threat to Maria Islands are Wild fires.  Saint Lucia has two seasons;the wet season which is from May to December and the Dry season from November to April.  During the dry season the islands get very dry and is at threat to a potential bush fire.  If such fire were to happen on Maria Island which is the mother land of the Saint Lucia Whiptail Lizard that population and other species will be lost forever.   Because of this the Whiptail lizard was trans located to two other offshore islands namely Praslin Island and Rat Islet thus saving the species from total destruction.  

                                          

Our conservation works are always on going because of the many threats to the islands and the unique biodiversity found there.  SLNT gets most of its' of funding from outside donors like Durrell to help with our conservation mandate.  Staff has been trained by experts like Dr. Nik Cole of Durrell.  With the continued support of these funding agencies we can preserve and conserve Maria Islands Nature Reserve for future generations of Saint Lucia Whiptail Lizard and the other species who live there.

Below is the flank side of the male and female Whiptail lizard that we're photographing to use with the Wild I.D software during the population survey.

Saphira Hunt, St Lucia