environmenttobago.net), Papa Bois Conservation (bit.ly/PapaBoisTT), Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (ffostt.com) and the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club (ttfnc.org).Joined to the South American mainland during the Ice Age when sea levels were lower, Trinidad and Tobago only became separate entities when movements of the Caribbean tectonic plates submerged the Orinoco Delta some 10,000 years ago. The islands owe their immense environmental diversity to this period of attachment, which has left them with many South American plants, animals and birds alongside the flora and fauna found elsewhere in the Caribbean. Few places of relative size harbour such variety.
A wide range of habitats support T&T’s wildlife; Tobago boasts the oldest protected rainforest in the western hemisphere along its main ridge of mountains, as well as marshes and lagoons in its southwestern tip, a network of thriving offshore reefs and the bird sanctuaries of Little Tobago and the St Giles islands. In Trinidad, the rich wetlands at Nariva Swamp are home to several plant and animal species found nowhere else in T&T, while Caroni Swamp offers easy access to mangroves and their inhabitants. The dry, treeless prairie at Aripo – the island’s only remaining true savanna plain – sustains unusual plants and orchids as well as birdlife. Trinidad’s hills are afforded some government protection, and contain three state reserves: the Northern Range Sanctuary, the Valencia Wildlife Sanctuary in the northeast and the Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in the southeast. However, there are only a handful of game wardens and rangers to defend the forests, and with quarrying and industry constantly encroaching on virgin land, the island’s wildlife is under constant threat. For more on the challenges faced by local environmentalists, check out Environment Tobago (environmenttobago.net), Papa Bois Conservation (bit.ly/PapaBoisTT), Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (ffostt.com) and the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club (ttfnc.org).
Although T&T’s woodlands are disappearing at a significant rate, they still make up around 40 percent of the country’s total land area. The various forest types include littoral woodland, deciduous seasonal woodland, rainforest and swamp forests; higher elevations see montane forest – wet and cool with plenty of epiphytic growth – while the stubby 2m canopy of elfin forest occupies only the highest mountain peaks.
About 350 species of tree grow in T&T, including the exotically named pink bark, gustacare, crapaud, saltfishwood, sardine, purpleheart, bloodwood, hairy cutlet and the naked Indian, which gets its somewhat politically incorrect name from its peeling brown bark. Forests are mostly made up of mora, teak, mahogany, cedar, cypress, Caribbean pine and balata; the latter produces a milky latex used to coat golf balls. Immediately noticeable, the bois cano has large, deeply lobed leaves that dry into a distinctive claw shape; and the mighty 40m silk cotton or kapok tree (its fruits contain the cotton-like kapok) boasts an impressive girth of buttressed roots spreading elegantly to meet the ground – Amerindians used entire trees for their dugout pirogues. With its spectacular spreading branches, samaan are often planted as shade trees, while the banyan looks more like a collection of interweaved vines than a tree, as its boughs produce aerial roots that form secondary trunks when they reach the ground. The tree fern’s diamond-patterned trunk and top-heavy crown of fern-like leaves lend a primeval aspect to high altitude forests.
A host of ornamental trees turn T&T’s forests into a patchwork of colour during the dry months (roughly Dec–May), when the intense orange-red flowers of the mountain immortelle compete with two varieties of poui, which shed their leaves to make way for cascades of dusky-pink or bright yellow blossoms. The cassia also produces prolific cascades of deep yellow or pink. Covering a flat, wide-spreading crown, the deep red flamboyant or poinciana blooms in August as well as April; during the dry season, half-metre pods full of rattling seeds dangle from the leafless branches.
Flowering sporadically throughout the year, the 15m African tulip or “flame of the forest” produces clusters of deep red blooms along outer branches; unopened buds in the centre of the flower are sometimes used as natural water pistols, as they contain a pouch of water which spurts out at speed when pressure is applied. Creating patches of mauve throughout Trinidad’s forests, the crown of the crepe myrtle is usually smothered with blooms, while bauhinia or orchid tree and jacaranda add to the purple hues.
Among the huge variety of fruit trees, the most easily recognizable are the many varieties of mango, with their rounded, dense crown of long, leathery leaves over a short trunk. Banana plants are not trees in the strict botanical sense; their huge, tattered leaves grow from a central stem of overlapping leaf bases. Covered by large purple bracts, the flowers hang from the main stem and eventually develop into fruit. Stands of plantain are similar, with larger, less tattered leaves and bigger, more robust fruit. Equally easy to recognize, pawpaw (papaya) has a long hollow stem with large splayed leaves and fruit growing out from the top of the trunk.
Still grown in groves for export and local chocolate production, cocoa is easily identifiable by its lichen-smothered trunk and dark green shiny leaves; the 20cm ridged oval pods grow from the trunk and turn from light green to brown, yellow, orange or purple when ripe. Covered with a sweet white gloop, the beans inside can be sucked when raw, but must be fermented, dried and roasted to produce cocoa powder. Cashew trees, with their strongly veined oval leaves, are common; the familiar nut pokes out of the bottom of a sweet-tasting, pear-shaped red fruit, whose shell produces an oily liquid that is a skin irritant.
The lifeblood of many a craft vendor, the fruits of the calabash tree grow to more than 35cm in diameter and are hollowed out and made into bowls, bags and all manner of souvenirs. Employed as a vegetable but classified as a fruit, breadfruit was brought to the Caribbean by Captain Bligh aboard the HMS Providence as food for plantation slaves, and is common throughout T&T. With spreading branches decorated by large serrated leaves, the spherical fruits are lime-green and pockmarked. Its close cousin is the chataigne or breadnut, a similar tree with smaller, spiky fruits that are eaten roasted.
Commercial plantations on both islands have made the coconut T&T’s most prevalent palm. It’s an incredibly versatile tree; the water and meat are consumed fresh at the jelly stage, while the flesh of older coconuts is grated and used in baking or immersed in water and strained to produce the coconut milk that flavours a thousand local dishes. Coconut oil is used in soap, cosmetics and cooking; the leaf fronds thatch roofs and make hats or floor mats; the husks are used to make floor buffers; and pieces of hard shell are made into jewellery and cups. Of the many ornamental varieties, the 30m royal palm is a graceful specimen with a grey, ruler-straight trunk; it’s often used to mark out driveways. Similar but even taller at an average of 40m, the cabbage palm has thicker, messier looking fronds, while the squat, spiky-leafed cocorite is one of the most common forest species. The ultimate in tropical splendour, the traveller’s palm is actually a member of the banana family – the name refers to mini-ponds at the base of the trunk that provide a convenient water source. Fronds fan out from the base in an enormous peacock’s tail shape as high as 10m.
Trinidad’s swamps of red, black and white mangrove trees, with their dense tangle of aerial roots, help protect coastal communities from storm surges, filter sediments that smother reefs and provide a nursery for fish and crustaceans. Common seashore plants include the wide-spreading Indian almond and sea grape, both with broad, deep-veined leaves that turn a pretty deep red as they mature. Definitely one to avoid, the manchineel tree grows to about 15m with a wide spreading canopy, yellow flowers and apple-like green fruits. All parts of the tree are extremely poisonous: even standing below a manchineel during rain incurs blistering from washed-down sap; those in oft-visited stretches of coastline sometimes have an identifying warning plaque or stripe of white paint around the trunk.
Of T&T’s various wild plants, the jumbie bead vine produces distinctive red and black seeds used in craft items and as good luck charms; they are said to ward off evil spirits, and a bead kept in a purse will keep it filled with money. A variety of mimosa with scratchy stems, ti Marie is known as “the sensitive plant” for its ability to curl back its leaves at the slightest touch; you’ll see patches of it on lawns throughout the islands.
The largest of the epiphytes that grow along tree branches, electricity wires and any available surface is the wild pine bromeliad, a spiky-leafed relative of the pineapple that produces a battered-looking red flower. These “air plants” are not parasites – they draw their nutrients from the humid, mineral-rich atmosphere – but water reserves trapped between the leaves (which provide a habitat for insects and frogs) can mean that smothered tree limbs sometimes collapse under their weight. Other epiphytes include 200 different species of orchids, which grow on living or dead plant or tree matter and in lowland savannas such as Aripo in eastern Trinidad. In the lowland forests, distinctive epiphytes include the monkey throat, whose flower is a perfect primate facsimile, and the pendulous jackspaniard, with its trailing wasp-like petals; the common lamb’s tail grows horizontally from large trees, and has attractive maroon-flecked green petals with a white and pink stamen.
T&T’s 2300-odd varieties of flowering plant provide beds, borders and hedges with a splash of colour, and you’ll often see several varieties of multicoloured croton leaves in between the blooms. The national flower is the chaconia, a spectacular crimson poinsettia which you’ll see throughout the forests, but the ubiquitous bougainvillea is the most common ornamental, its red, white, orange, purple and pink papery bracts spilling out into intensely coloured clumps. Distinguishable by its protruding pollen-tipped stamen, hibiscus takes on an abundance of hues and shapes – the lacy coral variety has clusters of tiny curling red petals and a red frill at the end of the stamen. A dark-leafed shrub with clusters of small red flowers, ixora is another popular ornamental that flowers throughout the year.
Flamboyant tropical flowers are grown commercially in T&T and also flourish in the wild. Brush-like ginger lilies are one of the most common exotics; the deep pink or red bracts hide the insignificant true flower, and the shiny, banana-like leaves are used in florists’ arrangements. A close relative, the torch ginger’s deep crimson cluster of thick waxy petals makes an impressively showy head. However, the queen of local exotics – and the symbol of the PNM political party – are the forty vividly coloured varieties of balisier, all members of the heliconia family, which include the aptly named lobster claw and the red, yellow and green hanging heliconia, which looks like a series of fish hanging from a rod. Equally prevalent are the artificial-looking anthuriums, a shiny, heart-shaped red, pink or white bract with a long penile stem or spadix protruding from the centre. The flashy bird of paradise, a blue and purple flower that resembles a bird’s head graced by a deep orange crest, is rarer.
With more than 100 species of mammal roaming the forests and flats (not including T&T’s ubiquitous 50,000-plus goats) hunting has long been a popular pastime and wild meat is consumed with gusto whenever available, with little thought to the devastating effect on animal populations. Most hunters go after the most common animals; the smallest quarry is the herbivorous agouti, a rabbit-sized brown rodent that looks like a long-legged guinea pig and feeds on fruits and leaves; and its larger relative the lappe or paca, which has longer legs and a pattern of stripes and spots on its fur. Equally desirable for the pot is the manicou or opossum, an unattractive cat-sized marsupial with a rat-like tail and a long snout that forages for scraps and carrion. The nine-banded tattoo (armadillo) is increasingly rare, as is the brown-coloured red brocket deer (extinct in Tobago) and the quenk, an aggressive wild hog. Another threatened species, the metre-long ocelot wildcat has been extensively hunted for its beautiful spotted pelt.
Otters live in and around the Madamas and Paria rivers in Trinidad, but shy away from humans. Trinidad’s cutest water-dwelling mammal, the herbivorous West Indian manatee or sea cow, grows up to 4m long and can live for fifty years. However, the destruction of its swampland habitat by development and by drainage for agriculture has decimated local populations, with around forty still living in the protected Nariva Swamp.
The islands’ largest monkey colonies also live in Nariva; with red-furred, hulking frames and a bulbous, bearded larynx, troops of up to fifteen red howlers defend their territory with the eerie, deafening roars that prompted their name. Smaller weeping capuchins live in the tree-tops in troops of up to twenty, and are able to use basic tools to crack open nuts and occasionally express their irritation at human intrusions by raining down a volley of sticks on curious heads. Around seventy species of bat inhabit T&T’s forests and caves, most living on a diet of insects, fruit, nectar and pollen. The two notable exceptions are the vampire bat, which prefers a more gruesome food source, creeping up on sleeping livestock and drinking their blood; and the frog-eating bat, which distinguishes between poisonous and edible species by listening to mating calls.
The largest of the seventy species of reptile is an endemic sub-species of the spectacled caiman, a 3m alligator with an elongated snout that inhabits swamps, rivers and dams, and feeds on fish and birds. Among the 47 different types of snake, only four are venomous. With the girth of a man’s arm and a length of up to 3m, the fer-de-lance is particularly aggressive, and is identifiable by its pointed head, yellow underside and chin, and orange-brown triangular markings. The bushmaster is slightly longer (up to 4m) with a burnt-orange skin distinctly patterned by dark brown diamonds, with smaller diamonds of orange within. Its venom can be lethal to the young, old or infirm, but deaths are incredibly rare and most bites afflict farmers working habitually in the bush; all hospitals carry antivenin. Both snakes are known as mapepire (pronounced “mah-pee-pee”) and inhabit forest areas. The two varieties of poisonous coral snake, the common and large coral snake, are smaller, rarer and less aggressive; they’re easy to spot, with black skin and red and white rings around the body. Known as macajuel (pronounced makka-well), boa constrictors – including anacondas – are T&T’s largest snakes, and can grow up to 10m in length. Most are patterned with brown diamonds that provide camouflage. They are not venomous, but can easily crush a small mammal in their powerful coils.
Among more than twenty species of lizard are gecko, usually referred to as zandolie or ground lizards. The twenty-four-hour lizard gets its name from a local myth which warns that if you disturb one, it will attach itself to your body and remain there for 24 hours – at the end of which you die. The bright green, spiky-backed, herbivorous iguana is a favourite quarry of hunters, especially if it’s carrying eggs; unsurprisingly, it spends most of its time hiding from human captors in leafy tree-tops. The metre-long, dark brown matte lizard relies on speed to stay out of the cooking pot, raising itself onto its hind legs to accelerate to 11kph in two seconds.
T&T’s most common amphibian is the crapaud (pronounced “crappo”), a warty, hand-sized toad with a loud, booming croak. The colostethus is a frog that provides a night-time chorus reminiscent of a demented guinea pig. Trinidad’s only endemic species, the golden tree frog, lives in epiphytic plants that cling to the rainforest trees of the island’s two highest mountains, El Tucuche and El Cerro del Aripo. In addition to the land turtle or morrocoy, five species of sea turtle lay their eggs on T&T’s beaches: the green turtle, the olive ridley, the hawksbill, the loggerhead and the giant leatherback.
With more than 485 types of birds recorded on the islands, Trinidad and Tobago ranks among the world’s top ten in terms of numbers of species per square mile, and offers some of the best birdwatching in the Caribbean. The national birds are the scarlet ibis (Trinidad) and the cocrico (Tobago), both of which adorn the republic’s coat of arms. A native of Venezuela and best seen at the Caroni Swamp, and resplendent with deep crimson plumage, the scarlet ibis typifies the eye-catching colours of local species, while the golden-brown, pheasant-like cocrico has a fleshy, bright red turkey-style wattle at its throat and a raucous, incredibly loud call that echoes through Tobago’s hills in the pre-dawn hours.
The sugar-water feeders at most hotels are a great way to see smaller birds at close quarters. Seventeen species of brightly coloured hummingbirds have been recorded in T&T, of which the most frequently seen are the copper-rumped and white-necked jacobin varieties, both with fabulous iridescent feathers. The most unusual hummer is the 6cm tufted coquette, Trinidad’s smallest bird and the third smallest in the world, with a red and yellow body, dark wings and a beautiful deep orange crest. Look out too for the stunning ruby-topaz; males boast deep orange tailfeathers and a bright red swathe on the head.
Squat, mottled-brown and whiskered, oilbirds have the honour of being the world’s only nocturnal fruit-eating birds, and Trinidad supports eight breeding colonies. Spending the daylight hours inside the caves in which they nest, oilbirds are unusually gregarious; up to forty will huddle on a single ledge, squawking and picking through each other’s feathers for parasites. Mature birds venture into the open only at night, using sonar to assist their manoeuvres through the forests in search of palm, laurel and camphor fruits, and often travelling as far as 120km from the colony in each foray. Fruits are swallowed whole and the seeds regurgitated, and their in-flight consumption is an important agent of reforestation.
Oilbirds rear one brood of young each year, laying between two and four eggs over several days in nests constructed from regurgitated, cement-like matter that rapidly turns the snowy-white clutch a dirty brown. The parents share the 32-day incubation between them, after which the blind, featherless fledglings emerge, remaining immobile for up to three weeks and feeding on partially digested fruit pulp. Development is slow: a patchy cover of downy feathers grows after 21 days, and young birds don’t fledge until they are 100 to 120 days old.
A young oilbird weighs twice as much as a mature one, due to the high fat content that gave rise to its name. Amerindians and Capuchin monks used to boil the fledglings down for their oil, which they then used to fuel cooking fires and make flambeaux; Amerindians also called the oilbird guacharo, “the one who wails and mourns”, on account of the rasps, screams, squawks and snarls that make up its call – an eerie sound that also inspired the bird’s French patois sobriquet, diablotin (devil bird).
Both jet-black, the blunt-beaked smooth-billed ani and the shiny cowbird, with a sharper beak and beady yellow eyes, are the local equivalent of pigeons. The audacious 10cm black-and-yellow bananaquit is supposed to subsist on nectar, but has become a frequent visitor to hotel breakfast tables, dipping its sharp little beak into fruits and sugar bowls. Seen wherever there are cattle, white egrets roost on ruminating rumps in a mutually rewarding relationship that provides the egret with a constant supply of insects and the cow some relief from bloodsuckers.
In the forests and flats, distinctive birds include: white-bearded manakins, which are one of several species of bird in Trinidad that perform intricate courtship displays in designated areas known as leks; and intensely coloured woodpeckers, antbirds, trogons and tanagers – the palm tanager is a cool olive with black flecks on its wings, while the bay-headed variety is a brilliant emerald with a russet head. Various honeycreepers display dazzling hues of turquoise and black; the purple variety’s near-black feathers only show their true colours in the sunshine.
Of larger birds, common varieties include multicoloured toucans, parrots, yellow orioles and the crow-like crested oropendola, black with a yellow tail, cream beak, beady blue eyes, a truly exotic call and a marvellous way of building nests: metre-long, teardrop-shaped constructions of dry grass that hang in groups from tree boughs. Though it can be hard to spot the bearded bellbird, you’ll certainly hear its penetrating “bok, bok” call in the hill forests. Birds of prey include the peregrine falcon, as well as several kites and hawks, including the ornate hawk-eagle, the largest of the lot. The ubiquitous vultures – locally known as corbeaux – perform a necessary function by devouring dead animals.
Tobago sustains a few species not seen regularly in Trinidad, such as the red-crowned woodpecker, rufous-tailed jacamar and the white-tailed sabre-wing. The smaller island is also the best place to see blue-crowned mot-mots (locally called king of the woods), with deep orange breasts, green-blue heads and long flowing tail feathers. Offshore of both islands, boobies and brown pelicans trawl for fish, the latter diving from great heights into the sea and scooping up its quarry in its large pouched bill. However, if a frigate bird is around, smaller sea birds often lose their catch, as the frigate feeds on stolen goods snatched from the beak of more efficient fishers.
With 92 varieties of mosquito in T&T, and far too many kinds of cockroach (ranging from 7cm dark brown beasts to the rare albino variety), you could be forgiven for doing your best to stay well away from the country’s invertebrate life, but many species are vital to the local ecosystems. More than 600 varieties of butterfly flit between local flowers, ranging from the 2cm crimson-and-black red devil to the commonly seen 7cm, bright blue morpho or emperor and the cocoa mort bleu, which is brown and mauve with eye-like spots on the wings.
Armies of black, brown or red bachac or leaf-cutting ants, with almost triangular heads and sharp, sizeable pincers, are divided into ranks. Large workers trim entire shrubs into coin-sized pieces and carry them on their backs to the nest, while smaller workers fend off any potential predators; the leaf-pieces are then shredded and chewed into compost for the cultivation of the fungus that feeds the colony. A single nest may discard as much as 20 cubic metres of waste material in five years, banking it up over the subterranean colony, which houses up to 2.5 million ants. Living in equally complex societies that can number one billion per colony, termites attach their large, irregular earthen nests to the sides of trees.
Aside from the spindly-limbed specimens that you’ll see indoors, the largest common spiders are black and red orb-web spinners, about 8cm long including the legs, and which spin the classic hexagonal web. More unusual is the trapdoor spider, which conceals its forest-floor burrow with a hinged doorway, springing out to drag in passing prey. Ten species of tarantula range from a delicately hued violet and brown to hairy and black, and can measure between 8 and 15cm (including the legs). Apart from a bird-eating variety, most are nocturnal insect hunters that construct their basic, messy-looking web tunnels on grassy banks or in dead wood.
The waters around T&T have seen an influx of the orange-and-white-striped lionfish in recent years, an invasive species with spectacular venomous spines that has made its way along the Caribbean chain from the south Atlantic, probably after being released from private aquariums. Voracious eaters with no natural predators in Caribbean waters, lionfish spawn every three days and have had a devastating effect on the marine environment here, drastically reducing numbers of tropical reef fish such as parrot and snapper. Efforts are underway to control the population, with local divers coordinating culls and educating fishermen about how delicious lionfish are to eat, but little headway has been made thus far.
Sediment flows from the South American mainland via the Orinoco River have prevented the build-up of extensive reefs around Trinidad, but the waters off Tobago, where visibility ranges from 12 to 50m, hold some of the richest in the Caribbean, though many are suffering the depredations of overfishing, pollution and the coral bleaching caused worldwide by rising sea temperatures. Among the sixty or so coral varieties found in T&T waters are rotund brains, patterned with furrowed trenches; branching umber elkhorn and staghorn; stalagmite-like pillar coral; and cool green star coral. Extremely striking are the groups of intricate soft coral sea plumes, sea whips and purple sea fans, while brilliant yellow anemones as well as red, brown, purple and green sponges provide a splash of colour, some growing in excess of 1m in diameter. Caribbean spiny lobsters and green or spotted moray eels lurk in the crevices between corals.
Sand flats and seagrass fields between the reefs host spiny black sea urchins, as well as a round white variety with shorter spines. Long, thin and off-white, sea cucumbers sift through the sea floor to feed on deposited nutrients, while starfish and queen conch snails move slowly along the seagrass blades, vacuuming up organisms that live there.
The reefs harbour a huge variety of multicoloured tropical fish, including parrot fish, electric-blue Creole wrasse, queen and French angel fish, striped grunts and spiny puffer fish – which balloon in size if threatened – as well as tarpon and trigger fish.
Of larger marine species, giant 7m manta rays are sometimes seen around Speyside in Tobago; smaller eagle, spotted and Atlantic torpedo rays, and southern stingrays are more common (Castara’s Big Bay is great for spotting rays in the shallows). Dolphins and porpoises are common, and docile, 15m whale sharks are occasional visitors, feeding on plankton and small fish. Other large fish include reef, tiger and nurse sharks; plus grouper, dolphin fish, kingfish (wahoo), tuna, blackjack, marlin, blue cavalli, sailfish, bonito and barracuda. During nesting season, T&T’s beaches are also used as nesting sites by turtles, most notably giant leatherbacks.