‘New’ species in local wildlife population

One animal caregiver is warning that several species of animals that may have been brought into the island as pets are now becoming invasive and could create increasing problems for the island’s ecosystem.

In fact, Ryan Inniss, owner of the Marizayra’s Sanctuary in Harrismith, St Philip, said several Indian Ringneck parakeets and iguanas and lizards have already been released in the country and their population was increasing.

He said “huge flocks” of the birds were now creating a problem for several farmers and he was wondering why they were not speaking out more publicly about it.

“These birds are causing a serious problem around Barbados now. They are causing problems to the farmers and when you speak to them they will tell you that they don’t know how to get rid of these birds,” said Inniss.

“One of these birds alone will eat one ear of corn and we have now over 3,000 pairs flying wild here in Barbados, again, because some smart person decided ‘you know what, I am going to loose these birds’ not knowing the devastation these birds are going to cause around Barbados,” he said.

Stating that some types of lizards were also on the increase, including iguanas, Inniss said he was in the process of putting together a programme with someone from the Barbados Reptile Association to raise awareness among Barbadians about their presence.

“There is the giant ameiva (a big ground lizard), there is the whiptail lizard. Lots of these are animals that come into Barbados . . . and then sometimes we have the birds that migrate from other countries here as well,” he said.

“We do have lots of iguanas wild here. They started out as pets. They may have either gotten away or persons released them and now these animals go out and reproduce on the ecosystem and they cause a problem. Even the turtle, the red-eared slider turtle, this is a problem with the ecosystem where we have lots of persons who thought they were doing good and released the turtles in the nearby Codrington pond and those turtles destroy a lot of the lilies,” said Inniss.

The animal sanctuary operator said he gets lots of calls from residents asking him to come for animals that are either pets or not species of Barbados.

He advised residents against attacking and killing the animals, saying they should instead call the various animal organisations so they could go and get them.

“We tell persons we don’t matter the time, even if it is 3 o’clock in the morning and you come across an exotic animal running wild to give us a call, and we will come over and collect that animal since we are trained in the area,” said Inniss.

He raised the alarm on Tuesday, following a visit to his establishment by Minister of Tourism Senator Lisa Cummins, other ministry officials, and representatives of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (MM)