Bertarelli Summer2024 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 16
E NV IRO NM E NT
RE W I L D I NG
that the island was inhabited by monsters—
chimeras that were half human, half goat. Until recently, the reality had echoes
of this dark vision. The tiny island of Redonda—just a mile long and situated
halfway between Nevis and Montserrat—was overrun by 50 feral goats and
6,000 giant rats that feasted on nesting seabirds like the rare brown booby.
OCAL CARIBBEAN LORE HAD IT
When the birds were away on migration, the rats
turned to eating all plants and animals that remained,
including each other. Once lush in vegetation and home
to endemic geckos, lizards, and a thriving bird community, over time, the rats—which were almost certainly
accidentally released by European voyaging ships in
centuries past—turned Redonda into barren rock, with
wildlife and vegetation on the verge of collapse.
In 2012, the Environmental Awareness Group
(EAG), a non-profit headquartered in Antigua and
Barbuda focused on the sustainable use and management of natural resources in the Caribbean, started
a 10 year long restoration project that saw Redonda
Island revert from rats to riches. Aggressive total eradication of the rats saved native species from the brink
of extinction.
The success of the mission was in part due to the
work of Shanna Challenger, an Antigua local who joined
EAG in 2016. Then 21 years old and freshly graduated
with a bachelor’s degree in ecology and conservation
from the University of the West Indies, Challenger
oversaw the sweeping overhaul of Redonda in her role
as the island’s Restoration Program Coordinator. The
fieldwork shaped her relationship with nature, and she
has since gone on to spearhead other local Caribbean
conservation projects, as well as to raise the profile of
endemic species in Antigua and Barbuda.
Nautilus recently spoke with Challenger over Zoom
about her experience in Redonda and her vision for the
future ecology of Antigua and Barbuda.
Tell us about how the rats were removed from
Redonda island.
Before I tell you about the rats, I must tell you about
the feral goats. I don’t know how it is where you are
from, but in Antigua, people are very goat-sensitive.
It’s a delicacy here; we have something called goat
water—it’s kind of like a soup or a stew with chunks
of goat in it. And so, the government of Antigua and
Barbuda, who own Redonda island, said they were not
going to support this project if y’all kill the goats. So,
before we could do anything else, we had to relocate
the goats. We had to bring the goats to Antigua.
Wow, okay, so how do you move goats off an uninhabited island?
By helicopter. But first we had to catch them. Redonda
was very inhospitable back then. There was no fresh
water, no shade during the day. We decided to build
a corral, an oasis with water and shade to lure the
goats in. But the goats were suspicious, they completely
ignored the corral for months. So we put out traps, we
put out snares. But the goats would just hop over them.
We even got a net launcher. Then finally, six months
later, we were able to catch one goat.
Ha. Clever goats!
Yes. And only after months of visiting Redonda were
we able to see better what the goats were doing, and
then we had the great idea—let us try and capture the
kids! We noticed the older goats followed the kids. We
14
PAGES 12- 13 : ED MA R S H A L L
L
|
