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B O O K  R E V I E W
151IGUANADecember 2003

Islands and the Sea: Essays on Herpetological
Exploration in the West Indies. Robert W.
Henderson and Robert Powell (editors). 2003.
Society for the Study of Amphibians and
Reptiles (SSAR), Ithaca, New York. 312 p.,
316 photographs, 14 maps, indices.
Clothbound, $48. Available from: Breck
Bartholomew, SSAR Publications Secretary,
P.O. Box 58517, Salt Lake City, Utah
84158–0517 (ssar@herplit.com).

I will admit to having a few regrets in my
career, and certainly my decision to decline Bob
Powell’s invitation to contribute an essay to this
volume ranks among the highest. For anyone who
has dedicated part of their career to working in the
Caribbean, for those with a strong interest in the
natural history and biogeography of islands, or if
you simply enjoy stories of herpetological explo-
ration and discovery, this is must-read material.

The book is well organized, 300 pages divided
into six sections corresponding to the major island
groups in the Caribbean: the Greater Antilles
(Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), the
Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles. Regrettably,
some islands received short coverage, with only
one essay on Puerto Rico and none on the Turks
& Caicos. Powell and Henderson’s introduction
and historical perspectives set the tone for the
book and provide the reader with a scholarly
overview of many of the early herpetologists and
remarkable personalities that did much of the pio-
neering exploration in the West Indies.

Herpetological research in the West Indies is
an intriguing pursuit for many reasons, the first
and foremost being a remarkable degree of diver-
sity. Recognized as one of the world’s biodiversity
hotspots, this is particularly evident with herps. An
archipelago containing several hundred islands,
ranging from huge landmasses to minute specs of
land, the Caribbean is a living laboratory of evolu-
tion and speciation. Boasting over 600 species of
reptiles and amphibians and a remarkably high rate
of endemism, the Caribbean ranks second only to
Mesoamerica in terms of reptilian diversity (438
species) and has the highest rate of endemism
(84%) of any region in the world. Amphibians,
though not as diverse, have a comparable rate of

endemism (86%). These impressive figures, com-
bined with elevated numbers for vascular plants
and birds, provide ample incentive for urgent con-
servation measures in these delicate ecosystems —
but much of the Caribbean is under intense pres-
sure and, sadly, many of us now devote consider-
able time and energy trying to save the last vestiges
of species ravaged by the effects of man. I often
wonder, and I know my colleagues share this sen-
timent, what it would have been like to set foot on
these islands 100–200 years ago when they were
still largely pristine.

The essays in this volume cover a broad
expanse of time, dating from the 1950s to the pre-
sent. Those early stories of herpetological field-
work and discovery (Stan Rand and Sixto
Incháustegui in the Dominican Republic, Skip
Lazell in the Lesser Antilles, Meg Stewart in
Jamaica, and Orlando Garrido in Cuba) take us
back to a simpler time when collecting was less
complicated (except for travel) and the habitats less
damaged. The essays on Cuba, to me, are particu-
larly compelling because they offer vignettes into a
world that, due to narrow-minded political agen-

Ed. note: This review by Rick Hudson will also appear in the
Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society.



das, few of us have the opportunity to experience.
Perhaps the best read in this series is Alberto
Estrada’s vivid description of collecting herps while
on an expedition to find a remnant population of
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. This story is both
poignant and haunting in that we are able to
glimpse, through a narrow window in time, the
last sightings of a species before it slipped quietly
into extinction.

The genus Anolis has undergone a remarkable
degree of speciation in the Caribbean, where it
reaches its apex of diversity, providing ample
opportunities for fieldwork and research. Nowhere
is this more evident than Richard Glor’s
“Rediscovering the Diversity of Dominican
Anoles.” Written in a fast-paced narrative, this
lively essay recounts the ambitious attempt by him
and his colleagues to collect all 40 species of
Dominican anoles, a determined mission that lit-
erally comes down to the last species on the last
day of their trip. An engaging story, this is about
as exciting as herpetological reading can get.

Of course, no coverage of the Caribbean her-
petofauna would be complete without featuring
the prehistoric-looking Rock Iguanas of the genus
Cyclura for which the islands are so well known.
Undoubtedly the most conspicuous element of
the region’s reptilian fauna (evidenced by the pho-
tograph gracing the dusk jacket), these charismatic
lizards have become flagship species for conserva-
tion in the West Indies. This book includes chap-
ters describing Cuban Iguanas at Guantanamo Bay
(Allison Alberts), Andros Iguanas (Chuck Knapp)
and Allen’s Cay Iguanas (Jen Valiulis et al.) in the
Bahamas, Jamaican Iguanas in the Hellshire Hills
(Byron Wilson), and Rhinoceros and Ricord’s
iguanas on Isla Cabritos, Dominican Republic
(Sixto Incháustegui). Of particular interest in
Sixto’s chapter is a rare photo of Michael Carey, a
well-known and near legendary (in that he seemed
to vanish, dropping out of sight in the 1980s)
Cyclura biologist, who published some seminal
works on the genus through the Florida State
Museum. For those of us obsessed with Rock
Iguanas in the late 1970s and 80s, his was some of
the most treasured reading material available.

Iguana delicatissima is discussed several times
in the Lesser Antillean section, nowhere more
vividly than in Michel Brueil’s account, “In the
Footsteps of French Naturalists.” He examines the

processes (man-made, most harmful and negative,
as well as natural) dating back to European colo-
nization that have accounted for some of the per-
plexing distribution patterns seen in the French
West Indies, including that of the genus Iguana.
His story provides compelling evidence of just
how rapidly species’ distributions can change over
a relatively short period of time, events which
should cause us great concern given how this
process has been accelerated today. This essay also
provides cause for optimism in that it demonstrates
the resiliency of many island populations (in this
case a population of I. delicatissima reduced by
half — from an estimated 10,000 to 5,000 — by
a severe drought) and their ability to persist and
rebound from horrendous natural disasters. This
chapter also reinforces the reality that the primary
threat to biodiversity in the region is introduced
exotics.

My complaints on this book are few and only
one merits mention. Photo credits are conspicu-
ously absent from most of the book. They are pro-
vided inconsistently, some chapters have them but
most do not. Maybe this is just a quirk of mine,
but I like to know who shot the images. As it turns
out, uncredited photos are by the authors of the
respective essays, but nowhere is this explained. I
found very few grammatical errors, and the edit-
ing appears to be thorough, the exceptions being
a disparity in the number of Cuban anoles (59 by
Garrido’s count; “about 50” according to George
Gorman) and a statement in Hinrich Kaiser’s essay
that Eleutherodactylus amplinympha is Dominica’s
only endemic vertebrate (it is the island’s only
endemic frog).

All in all, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read
and I highly recommend it. If you are already pas-
sionate about Caribbean herpetology and working
in the islands, this is required reading. If you have
not experienced the sheer joy and exhilaration of
exploring some of these remarkable destinations,
this book should provide the spark that initiates
your conversion. The allure of these islands is pow-
erful, and once experienced, hard to shake off. But
then who would want to?

Rick Hudson
Co-chair, IUCN Iguana Specialist Group

Program Officer, International Iguana Foundation
Conservation Biologist, Fort Worth Zoo

B O O K  R E V I E W
152 IGUANA Volume 10, Number 4




