Bertarelli Summer2024 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 20
SNAKE SAVIOR Now, Challenger is focusing on restoring the Antiguan racer snake. It used to be endemic on
Redonda, but is now the fourth rarest snake in the world.
for the Hawksbill turtles. And it’s a protected area, so
we have restricted the amount of people who can access
the near shore of the island. Reducing that human pressure, and the boat anchor damage as well, has also
helped the reefs.
How did it feel the first time you saw the island changing?
I’m not gonna lie, on the helicopter coming in I started
to cry because I couldn’t believe it! I thought not only
has she recovered, but she was continuing to recover, and it
was like this conservation, it works!
When I was camping during the rat eradication at
one point there was dirt in my toothpaste, dirt in my
soap, dirt in my tent, I felt like dirt the entire time. And
to go from that … never in my wildest dreams would I
have thought that she would have recovered so much
and so quickly. Now, every tree I see, I have to take a
selfie with it!
I’m at peace when I’m on Redonda. When I wake
up and see all the animals in their own niche, my heart
sings. It is so inspirational and so inspiring to see that
it’s not just on paper that conservation works, it’s in
real life. And it is local, led by Caribbean people.
Why would the marine areas recover, if most of the
restoration work was done on land? What is the
connection?
Studies have shown that when you do an invasive animal eradication on terrestrial space, there’s also a link
to the surrounding marine area. When there was no
vegetation on Redonda, there were a lot of rocks falling and sediment washing straight into the ocean. Big
boulders just dropping into the sea and crushing the
coral reefs. Since we have removed the rats and goats,
the trees and roots hold the soil together, so there’s a
lot less runoff and sedimentation going into the water.
There’s also an increase in the number of seabirds,
which are pooping more. The guano washes into the
sea and the nutrients are helping the coral recover. The
ecosystem is sponge-dominated, so it’s very important
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J ENNY DA LTRY / R E:W I L D
are looking at re-introducing a burrowing owl. But
we’ve not brought over any vegetation or anything, we
just allowed nature to recover naturally.
Even in the marine space, we are discovering new
coral colonies popping up, more foraging turtles, more
parrotfish, etc.
