The Cayman Islands Department of Environment writes: We are tasked with protecting first and foremost the plants and animals which belong to the Cayman Islands. We have researchers and scientists from various fields of study who work with and assist us in finding out what is happening in our lands and beaches, forests and cliffs, reefs and deep waters so we can see the bigger picture and make informed decisions.
Scientific monitoring of wildlife is not simple. It takes a great deal of funds, time and patience to get out in the field, install or retrieve devices, wait with binoculars, and record sightings, details, times and coordinates for every event, even if nothing happened. All this data helps us understand what is happening (or not happening) in all those spaces and times when no one is there to record it.
While we can’t make assumptions, we can make educated decisions based on the evidence we have found along with other forms of evidence such as tracks, faeces, feathers, fur, citizen reports or even a lack of these things.
Thousands of brown booby birds and nests used to fill the skies and cover the cliff face and edge all along the eastern tip of the Brac Bluff. Now there are less than 50 nesting pairs. We will lose them forever if we don’t reduce their threats now.
Evidence has been found on multiple occasions of booby eggs, chicks and parents dying as a result of cat predation. This has been shown with camera imagery, fur, tracks, faeces and other indicators. Losing our brown booby colony is not the only problem we face as a nation, and controlling the alien predators they face, such as feral cats and rats, isn’t the only solution. But to ignore what we know is contributing to their demise doesn’t make sense.
We can’t let some of the original inhabitants of these islands die without at least knowing we did everything we could to save them. It’s just not, well, in our nature.
