Green monkeys are clever and adorable, at least according to the Barbados Tourism Encyclopaedia. It’s hard to deny that they’re amusing, especially after watching the viral BBC video of the primates snatching drinks off beachside tables in St. Kitts.
But, like other invasive species, the monkeys are also dangerous.
Besides threatening agricultural operations, they’re a public health risk because they can pass diseases like yellow fever, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B to humans, said Dr. Nadia George, a veterinarian with the Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture.
“We do not want these monkeys coming to the territory and affecting our human population,” Dr. George said.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion about various invasive plants and animals in the territory, Dr. George and others outlined a range of invasive species found in the Virgin Islands, the impacts of which range from mild ecological disturbances to the decline of some of the territory’s indigenous species.
Among the best known and most despised invasive species in the territory, the lionfish, thought to have arrived in the Caribbean after escaping from an aquarium in Florida, is a useful case study in one approach to invasive species: sustained management.
With no natural predators and a voracious appetite, the lionfish has the potential to be a disaster for the territory’s coral reefs, which translates into a real economic threat for dive operators around the territory. But professional and hobby divers have formed Reef Guardians and joined Conservation and Fisheries officers to find and spear the lionfish, and their efforts seem to have helped.
“It now seems like the population has been going down, or at least it’s stabilised,” said Chief Conservation and Fisheries Officer Kelvin Penn. Mr. Penn added that while the spines of a lionfish are venomous, their meat is not poisonous, and lionfish fillets have been served at CFD functions in the past.
See the June 12, 2014 edition for full coverage.
{fcomment}