OCR Text |
Show Small Caribbean Island Setting For Unique Wildlife Management Program Several thousand feral goats and pigs the wild descendants of animals that were abandoned when old plantations failed are to be the subjects of a wildlife wild-life management program now inaugurated on Mona Island, 45 miles West of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported recently. Like some other Caribbean Islands, small bean-shaped Mona Mo-na Island has very little natural widlife. Nearby Puerto Rico has practicaly no animals which the people can hunt. To supply hunting for Puerto Ricans, the wild pigs and goats of Mona Island are henceforth to be termed "wildlife" and managed just the way deer and other game animals are managed in mainland forests. The feral pigs and goats seem very well adapted adapt-ed to the six miles by five, semi-arid semi-arid island. Mona Island has a climate and vegetation very similar to Arizona's, The southeastern cor ner has a low coastal plain covered cov-ered with bean-bearing trees similar to the acacia. It is in this portion that most of the wild pigs live. The rest of Mona Island rises abruptly from the sea to form a plateau about 100 feet above sea level. This plateau, with its brush . and cactus, cac-tus, supports most of the island's goats. The limestone rock of the island is honeycombed with one of the most extensive cave systems sys-tems in the world. It is possible to go from one end of the island to the other through these caves The goats come down into the caves for protection from the weather, to get drinks from puddles that form under dripping drip-ping stalactites, and to have their kids. Other species selected for study and management on Mona Island include the white-crowned pigeon and the rare rock iguana ig-uana a large edible lizard ranging from 18 to 50 inches in length. |