Battowia or Bettowia is one of the
Grenadine
Grenadine is a commonly used nonalcoholic bar syrup characterized by its deep red color. It is a popular cocktail ingredient renowned for its flavor as well as its ability to give a reddish or pink tint to mixed drinks. Grenadine is traditiona ...
islands which lie between the Caribbean islands of
Saint Vincent and
Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...
. Politically, it is part of the nation of
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...
.
Flora and Fauna
Battowia island is locally known as "Bird island" as it is a roosting and nesting site for a variety of seabirds, in particular larger birds such as
frigatebird
Frigatebirds are a family of seabirds called Fregatidae which are found across all tropical and subtropical oceans. The five extant species are classified in a single genus, ''Fregata''. All have predominantly black plumage, long, deeply forked ...
s,
gull
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...
s and
boobies
A booby is a seabird in the genus ''Sula'', part of the family Sulidae. Boobies are closely related to the gannets (''Morus''), which were formerly included in ''Sula''.
Systematics and evolution
The genus ''Sula'' was introduced by the Frenc ...
and also
brown pelican
The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mout ...
,
brown noddy
The brown noddy or common noddy (''Anous stolidus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related black noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black. The b ...
,
sooty tern
The sooty tern (''Onychoprion fuscatus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans, returning to land only to breed on islands throughout the equatorial zone.
Taxonomy
The sooty tern was described by Carl Linnaeu ...
. As well as land birds such as
tropical mockingbird
The tropical mockingbird (''Mimus gilvus'') is a resident breeding bird from southern Mexico to northern and eastern South America and in the Lesser Antilles and other Caribbean islands.
Taxonomy and systematics
The tropical mockingbird has so ...
,
eared dove
The eared dove (''Zenaida auriculata'') is a New World dove. It is a resident breeder throughout South America from Colombia to southern Argentina and Chile, and on the offshore islands from the Grenadines southwards. It may be a relatively re ...
, and the
Antillean crested hummingbird
The Antillean crested hummingbird (''Orthorhyncus cristatus'') is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. Found across Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, north-east Puerto Ri ...
.
Among other inhabitants of the island are
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...
s and rare
Congo snake
''Amphiuma'' is a genus of aquatic salamanders from the United States, the only extant genus within the family Amphiumidae . They are colloquially known as amphiumas. They are also known to fishermen as "conger eels" or "Congo snakes", which are ...
(''Amphiuma'') and
Barbour's tropical racer
Barbour's tropical racer (''Mastigodryas bruesi'') is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the Caribbean.
Etymology
The specific name, ''bruesi'', is in honor American entomologist Charles Thomas Brues, who ...
(''Mastigodryas bruesi'').
Battowia Island is declared a Wildlife Reserve.
«Battowia Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines»
, Protected Planet
The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the largest assembly of data on the world's terrestrial and marine protected areas, containing more than 260,000 protected areas as of August 2020, with records covering 245 countries and territorie ...
References
Islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Private islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
{{SaintVincent-geo-stub