Redonda rebounds: 6,000 rats, goats removed; lizards up 8x, vegetation 20x

Representative imageFor years, Redonda looked less like a Caribbean paradise and more like a barren volcanic outcrop. Its steep cliffs and rocky surface were stripped of vegetation, while invasive goats and thousands of black rats consumed or destroyed much of the island’s fragile wildlife.Then conservationists removed the animals that did not belong there, and Redonda began to heal.Within only a few months, native plants started returning. Within two years, vegetation cover and biomass had increased more than 20-fold, while the population of Redonda’s rare ground lizards had risen eightfold. Bird species that had disappeared from the island began to return, and the landscape changed from brown and dusty to green and alive, according to a eport by the BBC.The recovery of Redonda is now reg