The Animal World of Puerto Rico, 1899
A description of the wildlife and livestock seen in Puerto Rico c. 1900.
From Porto Rico and the West Indies, by Margherita Arlina Hamm, 1899.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
The Animal World
Although no territory is better suited for a large and varied animal life, yet Porto Rico is not to be compared with many other lands possessing similar advantages. Professor Lydekker, the British zoologist, says that while North and South America were at one time connected by an isthmus, allowing the movement of animals from one continent to the other, no such connection ever seems to have existed between the West Indies and either of the two continents, and that, therefore, it was impossible for the land animals of North and South America to migrate to these islands, and especially to those at the greatest distance from the mainland. This will explain why Porto Rico is so deficient in indigenous mammalia, although it has a large representation of all those living creatures which move through either the air or the water.
Most of the warm-blooded animals have been imported on purpose, or by accident. In the former class should be placed the horse, cow, sheep, pig, goat, donkey, dog, and the cat. In the latter class are several species of rat, mice, the monkey, the mongoose, and the guinea pig, which, of course, is not a pig at all.
The horse does not seem to prosper in the Porto Rican climate, if the poor and weak specimens of to-day are to be taken as an example of the race. Now and then one runs across a handsome cob or carriage horse, but these have been imported from Spain, England or the United States, or else are descended from imported horses which were kept with particular care on farms in the country districts.
It should be said that the average Porto Rican is very indifferent to the welfare of his four-footed friends. He seldom supplies them with proper food, but lets them forage for themselves by the roadside or from the garbage heap. Most of the horses on the island are thin, weak and puny creatures that excite the sympathy of any lover of horse flesh. The donkey, that wonderful little animal, thrives, as he apparently does, in every part of the world. He is the same patient, philosophic, big-eyed, long-eared creature in Ponce or San Juan as in Cairo, Naples or London. The mule and the hybrid jennet are more popular than either of their parents, and are cultivated with success.
The climate seems too hot for the cow, whether the culture of that animal be directed toward dairy or stockyard purposes. It receives but little attention, and is forced, like the horse, to shift for itself. What would be the result if the cow were treated with the same care as in England or in America remains to be seen. One thing is certain, it would attain greater beauty and usefulness than it now displays, but whether it would ever rival its English or American cousin in milk & butter and beef may be doubted. At any rate, the experiment ought to be tried, because if it were successful there would be a superior market for all three products. As it stands to-day, immense quantities of condensed milk, evaporated cream, canned butter, tinned oleomargarine, canned meats, jerked and smoked beef, are imported from different parts of the world.
Labor is very cheap in the country, little or no shelter is required, and a rich vegetation supplies the very best grazing imaginable. The cost of production would therefore be smaller than it is in either the Old World or the new. Even under the present conditions, the Porto Ricans export large amounts of cattle on the hoof, wet and salted hides, to both the neighboring islands and the mainland beyond.
The sheep, goat and pig do very well, but neither the sheep nor the goat produce as much fleece as in colder countries, and the pig does not attain the same fatness as in more northern lands. The latter tends to take one of two forms — either to become a long, lean and bony creature, known as the razor-back, or else to take to the woods and run wild. The goat also runs wild, and with the pig, forms a common feature of forest and mountain life. It may be added at this point, that running wild is an excellent thing, from the gastronomic point of view, the flavor of wild pig and wild goat, the Porto Ricans say, being rich and delicate, and five times more pleasing than that of the domesticated beast.
The dog, so loved in cold countries, seems to lose his honored standing with man in the tropics. It is so easy to live without human aid that the tendency to become a pariah overcomes the natural instincts. In every city there are pariah or street dogs, and they form about as melancholy and pitiable a class of quadrupeds as can be found. They earn their living as street scavengers, and judging from appearances, their remuneration is small and irregular. When dogs are cultivated it is apparently without any reference to breed, quality or character. All that the average señora desires is a round, fat little creature that will bark at every guest, and wag his tail at every member of the family. Under such auspices, valuable animals are not to be expected. Two-thirds of all I have seen in the island were "mongrels and curs of high and low degree." What exceptions there are belong usually to Englishmen, Americans, and Germans. When you see a well-bred dog in any city or town you may be certain that there is a foreign family, if not a foreign colony, in the immediate neighborhood.
Man's other companion, the cat, follows the example of the dog and goat. There are so many little juicy birds in the fields and forests, so many delicious rats and dainty mice, that at least one-half of the feline population is Ishmaelitic in character. Some are genuine wildcats who climb trees and make faces at travelers, the two trademarks of genuine wildcats, while the rest of them make their homes in the fields or in dark corners of sugar batteries and plantation outhouses. Patriotic persons claim that there are deer in the mountains, and point with pride to antlers which, upon their face, were brought there from Maine woods. The only basis for the story is that some captain-general in the long past did import some deer at great expense, and set them loose in the Bayamon hills, but their descendants are either dead or else have a miraculous power of dodging every rifle shot fired upon them.
The mongoose is, of course, the Indian animal. It was brought from India by the British government to rid Jamaica of rats, and after being there five years, it proved a more terrible scourge to the farmers than the rats themselves. A benevolent Spanish official, wishing to aid his farmers, brought some of the Jamaica mongoose to Ponce. They have not multiplied as rapidly as they did in Jamaica, but have done so much damage that they are shot on sight.
Of the indigenous animals the prettiest is that curious little fellow, the armadillo, or, as the English boy called it, the turtle-rat. It looks like a big rat, whose skin on the back has grown into a series of horny plates like those which cover a tortoise. The rat family makes an excellent showing, both the black and the Norwegian being represented, as are also the muskrat, the round-tailed muskrat, the common mouse, the harvest mouse, and a pretty little rodent known as the tree-mouse. There is also an odd creature called the hutia, whom people of our own race style the tree rat. It is considerably larger than our sewer rat, and has a longer fur. Its habits are arboreal, and its diet is like that of the squirrel. I did not see any squirrels, but have been told that there are a few in the interior of the island.
There is an aguti and a native guinea pig. In some parts the Capuchin monkey is found, which has got to Porto Rico somehow from the northern coast of South America. The bat family finds this place a pleasant home. There are many species, of which the more prominent are the ordinary bat, the long-eared bat, the hairy bat, the big-head bat, the sheath-tail bat, the mastiff bat, the vampire bat, the javelin bat, and the blood-drinker bat. In justice it must be stated that all the shocking stories told about the last three classes have no basis in fact...
There is a small animal whose Spanish name cannot be translated. It looks like a short field rat, but the female has the teats not upon the breast or abdomen. but upon the rear part of its haunches. This strange configuration enables the young to cling to the hind legs and draw milk from the maternal fount while the mother is climbing a tree, or ascending a precipitous rock wall. In the waters the otter is found, though but rarely.
In the larger streams and lagoons the manati is not uncommon. This interesting animal seems doomed to extinction. Its flesh is greatly prized, and the thin oil which is extracted from its fat is believed to have a mysterious medicinal virtue. It is purely aquatic, although it is said that the dam brings forth her young in marshes or on shoals inaccessible from the shore. The young swim almost as soon as they are born. When suckling the mother holds the young one to her breast with her flipper, and swims so high out of water that both heads are visible for some distance. It is this sight probably which gave rise to the poetic myth of the mermaid. Another marine animal which is almost extinct is the Caribbean seal. It is referred to as a common sight in the sixteenth century, and its skin was sold at so low a price as to indicate that the animal was very easy of capture. At the present time, however, it is exceedingly rare, and were it not for specimens caught and preserved every now and then it might be doubted if the animal still survived.
The feathered kingdom is remarkably numerous and varied. Many of the birds of the United States are found indigenous to the country, and several of the migrating species stop at Porto Rico during the winter months. The eagle, chicken-hawk, fish-hawk, owl, brown owl, heron, and crane belong to the former class, and the duck, wild goose, bobolink, to the latter. Our little friend, the English sparrow, also turns up in many towns, but does not seem to be as successful in that part of the world as in the New England and Middle States.
The turkey buzzard is very common, and is as useful there in devouring dead bodies as in other warm countries. One of the fairest of the children of the air is the rose-breasted grosbeak. It makes a very pretty burst of color on a background of green foliage. The bobo-link is sometimes known here as the butter-bird. The Phoebe, rock bird or water pewee is of medium size, of dusky olive brown, and with a song, which though monotonous, is quite sweet. There are several varieties of the flycatcher, of which the crested flycatcher is the most attractive. On the top of its head is a line of small plumes pointed and erect. They are of a dark grayish green, while the wings and tail are of rusty iron brown, the lower part of the wings being crossed with two bars of corn color. He has a moody expression, and a very melancholy eye. These become explicable the moment the unfortunate bird begins its song, which is, without exception, the most dismal screech known to the feathered realm….
All the domestic fowl are quite plentiful; the chicken, turkey, duck and goose abound, as do such semi-domestic types as the widgeon and teal; peafowl and guinea fowl are more numerous even than at home.
The reptilian world is not overabundant. The most agreeable member is the green turtle, which is found in all the West Indian waters. On the land are several varieties of tortoise, and in the swamps are snappers and other fresh-water turtles. The Ophidian family is unusually small for a fertile tropical country. The largest snake is known as the hunting boa, and is a connecting link between the black snake of North America and the constrictor of South America. It grows to nine and ten feet in length, and even larger specimens are recorded. It is not dangerous to man, nor even to medium-sized quadrupeds. Its natural food are such small fry as the rat, mouse, mole, fledgling, chameleon and rock lizard. There is a poisonous copper snake, a viper, and many small forest and meadow snakes. Very few of the latter are poisonous, and all have an abject fear of human beings.
The lizard is illustrated, though not to any large extent; occasionally an alligator is seen, but these have been hunted so industriously for three centuries that they vanish the moment they hear a strange sound or see a large approaching animal. The old records refer to these Saurians as being numerous and dangerous in the sixteenth century, which shows that the qualities of even a cold-blooded animal can be modified, and even revolutionized by the superior destructiveness of human beings. In the mountains are two or three varieties of iguanas or inoffensive land lizards, and eight or ten varieties of chameleons, house lizards, rock, tree and marsh lizards. That eminent musician, Mr. Frog, found this place a comfortable home, and lives here in considerable comfort, with his cousins, the forest frog, the sand toad, the tree toad, and a small ugly creature resembling the horned toad of the tropics.
Hamm, Margherita Arlina. Porto Rico and the West Indies. F. T. Neely, 1899.
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