From the dry forests outside of Kingston, we wound our way up into the Blue Mountains, famous for its coffee and steep sided hills. We camped at Hollywell, a campground in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park. We took over a tiny cabin and adjoining areas of flat ground for two weeks to survey the high elevation forests (1400m) of St. Catherines peak and to fill in a missing band of data between 800-1000m. At these elevations, we were finally able to meet the long-awaited Anolis reconditus, Jamaica’s high elevation specialist and last anole of the island left for us to see. A. reconditus is a trunk-ground anole, but it is LARGE and has bright blue spots behind its eyes. It completely defies my observation that high elevation species tend to be smaller than their low elevation counterparts. Also, blue spots! The male Anolis opalinus up here also have blue tails—which they do not have at low elevations.
However, despite four days of searching and driving down every side road in a two-hour radius, we were unable to find suitable plots between 800-1000m. The issue is that this window of elevation is ideal for agriculture and homes; every piece of flat land has been converted into pasture, a coffee farm, or has a house built upon it. Even within the national park. Between the flat plateaus of hilltops, the hills are at a 50-degree incline and covered with pristine forests. Sadly, those slopes are unreachable by car, or even on foot, and if we could reach them, we couldn’t set up plots. Plots require a minimum of 30m of flattish land, and importantly, we need to be able to traverse the land in a circle while holding camera, paint gun, and data sheet.
And while the increase of agriculture and development may be a conservation concern, it’s also a science issue. There are natural forests, but they are inaccessible without a paraglider, helicopter, 4x4 vehicle, or a goat-like ability to traverse cliffs. However, this elevation often marks the region of rapid turnover from low elevation fauna to high elevation—in trees, birds, and among anoles. Losing the ability to survey habitats in these elevations means we lose the ability to describe where exactly this zone of turnover occurs and how it varies across islands. It means we can’t say with model-based certainty how low the occurrence of A. reconditus extends and how high the low elevation species occur.
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