Dog Island is an uninhabitated small island of located approximately to the north-west of

Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territor ...

.Dog Island: A Seabird’s (and Seabirders’) Paradise
''Anguilla News'', Retrieved October 18, 2010Two St. Croix Couples Marooned On Dog Isle
''

The Virgin Islands Daily News The ''Virgin Islands Daily News'' is a daily newspaper in the United States Virgin Islands headquartered on the island of Saint Thomas. In 1995 the newspaper became one of the smallest ever to win journalism's most prestigious award, the Pulit ...

'', May 5, 1970The West India Pilot
p. 136-37 (1887) It is low and rocky, with three small

cay A cay ( ), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Great ...

s off the west and north coasts. The coastline is characterised by low cliffs alternating with sandy beaches. Large ponds lie inside two of the beaches. Dog Island lies west of the Prickley Pear Cays.

Flora and fauna

The central part of the island is covered in thorny scrub with prickly pear. The island, with the adjacent cays, has been identified as an Important Bird Area by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it is home to large numbers of nesting

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envir ...

s, mainly sooty terns with over 100,000 pairs recorded. Other seabirds breeding in smaller numbers include red-billed tropicbirds,

magnificent frigatebird The magnificent frigatebird (''Fregata magnificens'') is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. With a length of and wingspan of it is the largest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtropical waters off America, betw ...

s, masked and brown boobies,

laughing gull The laughing gull (''Leucophaeus atricilla'') is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. Named for its laugh-like call, it is an opportunistic omnivore and scavenger. It breeds in large colonies mostly along the Atlantic coast of North ...

bridled tern The bridled tern (''Onychoprion anaethetus'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans. The scientific name is from Ancient Greek. The genus comes from ' meaning "claw" or "nail", and , meaning "saw". The specific ...

s and

brown noddies 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 ...

. Reptiles present include the Anguilla Bank ameiva, Anguilla Bank anole, little dwarf gecko, island least gecko and a ''

Mabuya ''Mabuya'' is a genus of long-tailed skinks restricted to species from various Caribbean islands. They are primarily carnivorous, though many are omnivorous. The genus is viviparous, having a highly evolved placenta that resembles that of eutheri ...

'' skink. There are also feral goats.

References

Uninhabited islands of Anguilla Important Bird Areas of Anguilla Seabird colonies {{Anguilla-geo-stub