Cuban Wildlife

May 23, 2003 7:12 AM

Cuba is best known for its legendary cigars and bearded dictators, but it's also home to some of the healthiest ecosystems in the Caribbean. Pygmy owls, bee hummingbirds, and solenodons share the islands of Cuba with tiny tiny tree frogs, trogons, and one of the largest groups of snails in the world. There are problems, though. Many species such as the giant cursorial owl, the ivory-billed woodpecker and the smallest of the giant sloths have been wiped out over the last 5,000 years, and other species are threatened.
posted by bshort (8 comments total)

This post was inspired by an interview on the Leonard Lopate Show with Eugene Linden.
posted by bshort at 7:13 AM on May 23, 2003

Over the last 5000 years?!? Hell, a lot of stuff has been wiped out in that time...

I'm going to Cuba for my honeymoon in October, and I'm going to tell you all over and over until you want to kill me... (Assuming you don't already)
posted by twine42 at 7:16 AM on May 23, 2003

Thanks bshort and congratulations in advance twine42!
I also have one of the largest groups of snails in the world in my garden. At least that is what it looks like to me. When I get a hold of them, they become the fastest flying snails in the world (or at least the fastest flying snails between my garden and the adjoining wasteland).
posted by asok at 8:25 AM on May 23, 2003

Thanks, bshort. This is a beautiful post full of wondrous things to peruse.

I can no longer think of sloths without thinking of Yann Martel's brilliant, hilarious, endearing description of them in Life of Pi (Excerpted here).
(The sloth has become my spirit totem here at work.)

twine42, I hope you'll come up with a post or two about Cuba too. Consider it homework after your field trip : )

Not to snark, but thank God this is a post about Cuban wildlife and not about fine Cuban cigars, how they are rolled on the thighs of beautiful women, how to procure them, and how to best enjoy one after a fine meal (after cutting the cigar's end off with an expensive cigar-guillotine ; )
posted by Shane at 8:33 AM on May 23, 2003

A 2.5" bird?? 2.5"??!! That's almost nothing! I can't imagine what it would be like to have that fly by your head....it's a bee. it's a bug. no, it's a bee hummingbird!
posted by evening at 9:26 AM on May 23, 2003

Maybe some of the the health of the Cuban ecosystem is tied to "poor" economic performance - no money for insecticides and no predatory corporations to clear cut?
posted by troutfishing at 8:42 PM on May 23, 2003

Maybe some of the the health of the Cuban ecosystem is tied to "poor" economic performance - no money for insecticides and no predatory corporations to clear cut?

Yep, that was actually the analysis that Eugene Linden gave. Also, Cuba supposedly has a very low level of government corruption, which prevents corrupt officials from rigging bids and selling off swaths of land and resources to clear-cutters and miners.
posted by bshort at 11:06 PM on May 23, 2003

...selling off swaths of land and resources to clear-cutters and miners.

It also didn't hurt that, when Cuba initially nationalized industry, Castro kicked out the multinational sugar growers. Sugar really wrecks the land.
(Of course, this did politically hurt JFK.)
posted by Shane at 8:06 AM on May 24, 2003