Ruth Island (also known as Ruth Cay) is an artificial island off the southern coast of
Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...
near
Port Alucroix. It was created in the mid-1960s from the dredging of ''Krauses Lagune'' and is about 40 acres (16 ha).
Because the island is free of small Indian mongooses (''
Urva auropunctata'') biologists introduced the endangered
Saint Croix ground lizard
The Saint Croix ground lizard (''Pholidoscelis polops'') is a small lizard endemic to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Description
Growing to a size of between 35 and 90 mm (excluding the tail), adults have a pattern of light brown, dark brown an ...
(''Pholidoscelis polops'') from the
Protestant Cay population. Today there are about 30 ground lizards on Ruth Island.
References
Artificial islands of the United States
Islands of the United States Virgin Islands
Uninhabited islands of the United States Virgin Islands
1960s establishments in the United States Virgin Islands
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