The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino

well established, especially in disturbed or urban areas, that they are replacing
native species and threatening their survival in some parts of Jamaica.
Table 6.3 provides estimates of the total number of species and the number
and per cent of endemic species of some distinctive Jamaican plant groups.
Fauna
Mammals
The Jamaican hutia or coney (Figure 6.1) is a rabbit-sized
endemic rodent which is now very rare and hard to find.
Three or four species of the more than twenty species of
bats are endemic. The West Indian manatee (Trichechus
manatus) occurs here as well as elsewhere in the region. The
mongoose is an introduced mammal which has become a
pest to farmers and indigenous wildlife, as have rats and
mice and feral dogs and cats.
Birds
Over 200 species of birds are found in Jamaica, 113 species bred in Jamaica,
and at least 25 species (possibly as many as 30) are endemic. Well-known
endemic species include Jamaica’s national bird, the streamertail hummingbird
or doctor bird (Trochilus polytmus), the Jamaican woodpecker (Melanerpes radiolatus),
and the Jamaican tody or robin redbreast (Todus todus). Endemic
species that are endangered include the yellow-billed and black-billed parrots
(genus Amazona), the ring-tailed pigeon (Columba caribaea) and the Jamaican
blackbird (Nesopsar nigerrimus). There may have been an endemic Jamaican
macaw that became extinct soon after the arrival of Columbus. The West
Indian whistling-duck (Dendrocygna arborea) is a Caribbean endemic species
that is considered endangered throughout its range.
Reptiles
Native reptile species include several small lizards (of which seven
are endemic, including the green lizard); the endangered endemic
Jamaican iguana; the American crocodile; nine snakes, including
the large Jamaican boa (yellow snake); four species of sea turtles
(see Figure 6.2), all of which are highly endangered worldwide;
and the endemic pond turtle. The lizard-like galliwasps are also
endemic. In all, there are thirty-three endemic reptiles.
Figure 6.1 Jamaican
hutia or coney.
(Oliver 1983, 53.)
Figure 6.2 Hawksbill
turtle
N OTES ON THE N ATURAL H ISTORY OF J AMAICA
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