Restoring Alto Velo Island

“The reader will look in vain through cyclopaedias and dictionaries of history for the name ‘Alta Vela,’ and if he should be told that it is an island of West India, his atlas will still fail to reveal its position, so insignificantly small is it.” Jones (1902)

Despite such rhetorical flourish, Alto Velo Island is anything but “insignificantly small.” Ecologically valuable and evolutionarily unique birds and reptiles still remain on Alto Velo, for the time being, and effort must be made to ensure that they have a chance to persist. Hence, the work being led by a consortium of international collaborators presents an opportunity to preserve and enhance what remains of the island, restoring it to its rightful place as a crowning jewel of the Jaragua National Park and a remote refuge for boisterous sooty terns, curious curlytail lizards, sprightly sphaeros, electric anoles, and numerous other invaluable species.

In partnership with American Bird Conservancy

Biodiversity of Caribbean Anolis Lizards

Our lab has spent several decades investigating various questions related to the evolution and biodiversity of anoles in the West Indies and the broader Caribbean region. Much of our interest is in the brown and green anoles (A. sagrei and A. carolinensis species complexes) as well as the crested anole (A. scriptus) species complex.

Biodiversity of Boas

Sixty-six species of boas occur globally, from the snow-dusted mountains of the Sierra Nevada range to the rainforests of Amazonia to the islands of the South Pacific. Boas are one of the most spectacular radiations of vertebrates on the planet. We study all aspects of boa biology, evolution, and conservation, with particular focus on the 14 species of the West Indian genus Chilabothrus.