The Vanishing Animals of Hispaniola
Scuttling through the brush in the dark of a Dominican Republic night, a rare Hispaniolan solenodon comes into view in the sudden beam of a flashlight. This small animal has an exaggerated shrewlike snout and is one of the few venomous mammals on Earth. Hispaniolan solenodons (Solenodon paradoxus) live mostly off of insects, seeking protection in their burrows during the day and foraging at night. But their numbers are few, and their species status has been fragile.
One of only two surviving endemic mammals on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, the solenodons and their future depend disproportionately on conservationists in the Dominican Republic. With the island’s other nation of Haiti in dire political and economic straits, conservation work for the solenodon has largely fallen on the eastern nation’s shoulders.
As it has for many of the island’s other unique endemic species. From the strikingly jewel-toned broad-billed tody () to the charismatic endangered rhinoceros iguana (), animals of Hispaniola have been facing pressures from agriculture, poaching, development, feral predators—and collisions with humans: The Dominican Republic alone, with a population of just over 11 million people, hosts more than 7 million tourists each year.
