Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

[mountaingal]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

The mongoose. I've never seen this critter except as a blur when they cross the road. I don't know how they got this one to stop beside the car for a photo.


the mongoose, brought in to eat snakes and rats in the canefield, ended up decimating Jamaica's snake population and turning away from rats (after all, the mongoose is a rodent, too) to other species. the little pest is now responsible for making extinct five species of Jamaican animal life - two birds, two snakes and one lizard.

[Q3210]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

QK and I have the dubious honour of having toads in the house. During rainy evenings, they slip under my outside back door. Unless I block it up, they always head inwards. Dont know about QK`s methodology, but I confront the critters with a mop or a broom and >>>SWOOSH out they go.
Most Jamaicans I can swear for are not too fond of the toad.
You`re right that frogs don`t go to far from the pond or from the tree cover. Toads somehow appear from nowhere and love to commute across the roads much to their peril, yuck!

Mongoose another pedestrian that gets run over time after time are quite plentiful all over the land. It is very shy and timid, though some are tame after being captured from when young.

Deer are another animal in the USA and Canada that are victims to vehicular traffic.
Goats, pigs and cows other than dogs are what I have seen on our roads, dead.

[afer]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

Originally posted by mountaingal:
[qb] Q, you're probably right in that it's likeley the toad that's common road kill in JA, as they walk/hop rather than leap (like bullfrogs). so toads may find it harder to escape oncoming cars. [/qb]

The pond frogs lay eggs like a string of black beads in water. The eggs developed into todpoles and separated from the bead, and the todpoles developed two front legs with a tail and days later, two hinds legs appear with the tail. When the tail disappears you have the frog.

During periods of drought, the pond frogs hibernate under the clay silt of the pond and waited for the rainy season. Pond fishes do the same thing.

When we clean the ponds there they were, under the cracked clay. As boys we would helped only to collect the fishes under the moist clay. Sometimes, side by side, there were fishes and frogs.

Dregs and sediments containing eggs of fishes and frogs were collected and put in steel drums or barrels of water and pour back into the pond to reseed it when the rain came.

Frogs play a very important part in the life of the Jamaican farmer in the country sides. They feed on crickets and other destructive pests. Frogs are a friend of the farmer.

Put frogs in yu gaaden i grow like wa.

[Green_Biscuit]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

MountainGal, here is an auction on eBay you may be interested in:

3535463813 The Herpetology of Jamaica

Good luck if you bid!

[mountaingal]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

thanks, GB, I'll take a look later.

[M]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

Did you give up on the spiders, MG?

[mountaingal]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

/o oooieee...what a turrrble question... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] i hate having my weaknesses exposed, lol!

oh gosh M, i'm trying NOT to give up, but I'm stuck. I will try this weekend to get in touch with my Jamaican contacts for a scientific name or two to see.

[M]

Re: Jamaican critters - good, bad and ugly

Originally posted by mountaingal:
[qb] /o oooieee...what a turrrble question... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] i hate having my weaknesses exposed, lol!

oh gosh M, i'm trying NOT to give up, but I'm stuck. I will try this weekend to get in touch with my Jamaican contacts for a scientific name or two to see. [/qb]

Oh hush, it's not a weakness - I tried myself, and it is not so easy to find these critters on the net.

When I lived in the bush, they were all over me [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] , but they aren't on the net! If I'd only known at the time, I would have been trying to get them to pose for the camera [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] .