Traveling in St. Lucia

St. Lucia is blessed with richness of skies due to wide variation of avifauna. It is a good place for St. Lucia bird watching and nature’s lover paradise because of its 117 bird species, 6 being endemic to the island: the St. Lucia Parrot, St. Lucia Pewee, St. Lucia Warbler, St. Lucia Black Finch, St. Lucia Oriole, and St. Lucia Wren.

St. Lucia Parrot. Also known as Jacqout, is found only in the Island of St. Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean. In order to the other members of the parrot family, its feathers are usually green, with rainbow-colored of bright red and blue on the edges of its wing. It has also a touch of dark red on its chest and light blue on the top the head. Although these parrots are over foot long and has multi-colored feathers they are hard to spot in the forest canopy where they live. Perhaps its one of the most colorful of the entire species of the Amazon parrots. And it is one of the largest birds in St. Lucia.

Unfortunately for this beautiful, unique species, a combination of human traits and nature place their long-term survival is in danger. Actually it is the best known St. Lucian endemic bird species. A few years ago, the St. Lucian Parrot is in danger of becoming extinct because of deforestation of St. Lucia rainforest and uncontrolled hunting, which decreases the parrot populations. Now, there are about 800+/-25 living in rainforest.  

St. Lucia Pewee. It is commonly known as Gobe-Mouche or Pin Kaka, with dark-olive brown upperparts and reddish-brown under parts. The adult Pewee grows about 15 cm in length. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Pewee is a kind of timid bird that is usually seen in openings in the forest understory where they sally for insects. Its calling sound is a rising pree-e-e and a high-pitched peet-peet-peet. The pewee nest is a cup-shaped nest made of leaves and moss placed on a branch. The female pewee lays two dark cream-colored eggs, heavily spotted with brown. The usual breeding season is May and June. St Lucia Pewee is full endemic because they were considered races of Lesser Antillean Pewee. Despite of genetic and morphological differences have caused ornithologists to assign full species status to both pewees.

St. Lucia Warbler. Is a species of bird in the Parulidae Family. Its local names are Chic-chic and Sequia Ba bad. It can be recognized by its bluish-grey upperparts; yellow throat and breast; yellow eyebrow stripe; and black crescent below the eye. Their voice delivers a loud trill, changing in pitch and speed. It is found in all forest types and at all altitudes. They forage energetically, collects insects and spiders from leaves and twigs. The St. Lucia Warbler resides in western and eastern coasts of St. Lucia. And this is one of the two St. Lucian endemic warblers.

St. Lucia Black Finch. Commonly called Moisson Pied-blanc, black or brown finch with heavy, black bill. The female can be recognized because of its grey head above and buffy below. The male black finch does not have a patch of red on its throat like the female one. But both of them have pink legs and they bob their tails vertically. The vocalization is a buzz tick-zwee-swisiwis you with the accents on the second and last notes. It grows from 13-14 cm tall with a breeding season from November to June.

St. Lucia Oriole. Also known as Carouge, which grows about 20-22 cm length. Commonly found in woodlands including dry and moist forest. The adult is black except for the lower back, rump, shoulder and lower belly which are rich orange or yellow orange. The womanly is similar to the male, but orange-yellow is duller; the immature is mostly greenish with a blackish throat. The nest is a well-made basket woven of grass and fiber. Their breeding season is from April to July. And it is endemic because of natural calamities like hurricanes, pest and diseases, aerial application of agricultural pesticides, deforestation and hunting.

St. Lucia Wren. The St. Lucia Wren locally known as Rossignol a small, active brown bird with black bars on its wings and tail, an indistinct pale stripe above the eye with a relatively large head. It is 11.5-13 cm length. The breeding season is May to August. The female lays two to six whitish eggs, heavily speckled brownish-red. It is considered as endemic because the wren is threatened by the loss of its forest habitat.

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The first inhabitants of St. Lucia, or the Arawaks, first named the country as Iouanalao meaning the ‘Land of the Iguana’. Tracing back to that time, we can say that species of the St. Lucian green Iguana is so rampant to the island making it an emblem to represent the area. One important thing about the importance of this Green Iguana on St. Lucia is that this is their largest land mammal and is found on no other island. 

At the present time, sadly, this Iguana is a rare spot to the island and even the local people know little about this animal that once dominate their country. There are several threats including human activities and predation that leads to its dredging condition right now and those will be discussed in the later part of this article.

An Interesting Specie

Scientists classified the St. Lucian Iguana as a species of a Green Iguana having the scientific name Iguana iguana. This is a wild type of green iguana and is locally known as ‘Iyanola’. Scientists concluded that this rare Iguana is unique specie among the family of lizards, and is only found on the island along the North East coast. Adults are light green in color with black stripes. Adult males possess a dewlap—a piece of black skin hanging in their necks that are used to attract females when inflated. Also, the St. Lucian Green Iguanas tackle their opponents using their long, hard tail.

Bearing the title of being the largest land mammal in St. Lucia, the green iguana can grow up to six feet long. What’s interesting is that they are also excellent swimmers! No doubt, they might have been very adapted to the environment for it was studied that they have been here even before we existed; more or less half a million years. 

Threats to St. Lucian Green Iguana

Just like other threatened species in the world, the St. Lucian Green Iguana is on a serious fight for survival. There are animal hunters in St. Lucia that still hunt iguanas for food. Though this activity is not widely practice in the island, still it is considered to be a great threat to their number. Another factor considered to have caused iguanas’ decreasing population is predation. Dogs are the only animal in St. Lucia that kills adult iguanas. Cats are also killing young and newly hatched iguanas. 

Beaches are of great importance to iguanas for they lay and nest their eggs there. Sand mining in St. Lucia also accounts for a great loss in their number; not just for Green Iguanas but for turtles as well. 

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Aside from the very famous Panama Canal, Bocas del Toro and all the other tourist attractions you know in Panama, there’s still one needed to be recognized—the Azuero Peninsula. One great thing about the country of Panama is that it has all the stuffs needed to suit everyone’s taste from all walks of life. 

The Cultural Heartland of Panama

Azuero peninsula long holds the name of being the cradle of traditional customs and folklores in Panama, probably due to its historical importance. This region was among the first parts in Panama to be inhabited by settlers about 10,000 years ago. Moreover, the northern part of the region was first cultivated even before the Spaniards came in the area.

Azuero Peninsula has two seasons- wet and dry. But the only difference from the other Panamanian regions, it has a dryer climate very suitable for beach activities which it is known for. The area has endless beach walks and coasts; in fact, the western part of which is among the favorite sunset viewing areas in the world. Surely, you’ll not just love the view and the landscape of Azuero, because it also hosts over 40 of celebrated festivals and folklore events every year. Imagine having that number of celebrations in a year! You’ll definitely love and embrace the traditional customs in Panama through the Azuero Peninsula.

Actually, the area is divided into two regions: the Eastern and Western Azuero. In Eastern Azuero Peninsula, baseball is a very famous activity and is also the center of attraction during their carnival. Here you can also find the town of Pedasi, a Spanish colonial town known for its plazas and creatively painted homes. On the other hand, the Western Azuero Peninsula boasts not only its sunset view, but also farming, cattle ranching and of course, beaches. The Western area is just opening up for development. If you prefer living in a developed area surrounded by meny happy and friendly people, the Eastern side has it all for you. But if you like a quiet area far from the noise of plenty of people, you’re suited for the Western side.

The hospitality of the people of Azuero will definitely keep you coming back. Anyway, the place alone—along with its pristine, long beaches, wonderful landscape, traditional festivals and first class amenities are enough to place Azuero Peninsula on your list for a perfect vacation and retirement refuge.

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It is not hidden among us that our natural rainforests all over the world are in to destruction on an alarming rate. Studies showed that if this condition continues up to hundred years from now, there is a great possibility that we will no longer see any natural rainforest existing. Probably that time we have to change all the maps and globes we have, deleting all green parts of the world that are once covered with rainforests.

In America, only just a three percent of their rainforests remain. Statistics showed that about thirty acres of trees are being cut down in just a single minute. Just imagine how miserable the conditions of rainforests are. And, to think that half of animal species in the world live in rainforests, the continual destruction of their habitats is causing them to be critically endangered. 

What accounts to forest degradation?

Probably the first suspect that came to your mind is illegal logging—or the unauthorized cutting down of trees either to be used as a raw material or just to clear the area to be transformed into other purposes. We might also exempt ourselves from being held responsible for deforestation, but one hurting truth is that the primary reason for cutting trees is for human consumption and money matters. To sum it up, we humans, together with our necessities account for great deforestation. We need livelihood to survive, that’s why we clear off rainforests to give way for our agriculture business. We need houses, furniture, paper, gum and palm oil—all these products require cut trees as a raw material.

So what are the impacts of deforestation?

This topic might sound very familiar, but see how it will affect you. Let’s look at the major impacts of deforestation to our present lives:

Climate. Rainforests are considered to be carbon sinks; they are responsible for absorbing carbon into the air that accounts greatly to climate. If more and more trees will be thrown down, it was estimated that by the year 2100, about 87-130 billion tons of carbon will be released into our atmosphere.

Natural Disasters. Trees are held greatly responsible for the balance in our ecosystem. They are the ones to absorb rainwater and turn it back to the atmosphere through evaporation. When trees continue to be cut down, we are into great danger when it rains. There are no more roots to hold the soil in place and absorb impact from rushing waters.

Biodiversity. The most diverse and special species of animals and plants are contained in tropical rainforests. When these are completely gone, what will remain are just the common plants and animals we see in around. What’s more threatening is that, the chance to discover more unnamed species is gone.

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