Little Tobago Island is located off the northeast coast of
Tobago, it is about 97 hectares, and contains seasonal and littoral forests.
Birds of Paradise were once introduced here, they have now been extirpated and
are replaced by feral domestic chickens. We made a day visit to the island on
June 29 and observed some of the herpetofauna. The most obvious species is Ameiva
atrigularis, these lizards are relatively tame, sit quietly on a trail and they
will approach you, and some specimens are quite large. There is relatively
little beach habitat on the island, but there is a small stretch of sandy beach
next to the jetty where Cnemidophorus lemniscatus is present. Gonatodes
ocellatus can be seen sitting on tree trunks in the shade. Iguanas are also
present, and usually a fleeting glimpse is all you see. We failed to find Bachia heteropa and
Hemidactylus palaichthus species previously
reported by Dinsmore (1970) and Murphy (1997).
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Ameiva atrigularis foraging on Little Toabo |
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Cnemidophorus lemniscatus on Little Tobago |
As for the snakes, we found only Mastigodryas dunni, a
species also present on Tobago. Other snakes reported from the island are:
Atractus trilineatus and Leptophis
coeruleodorsus.
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Mastigodryas dunni from Little Tobago |
Frogs are problematic on Little Tobago. Mannophryne olmonae
and Leptodactylus fuscus have both been reported from the island by Murphy
(1997) but we have been unable to confirm their presence. Freshwater is in
short supply, streams are few and intermittent.
Surprisingly absent from the island are: marine toads and any member of the genus Anolis.