Report highlights the introduction of invasive species on St. Eustatius, indicating threats to local biodiversity.
The Caribbean Islands biogeographic region is a biodiversity hotspot with 1,030 species of amphibians and reptiles, 82% endemic to the region (Hedges et al. 2019; Hedges 2025). However, many of these species are locally extirpated or face extinction, primarily by habitat destruction (deforestation), but also by introduced diseases and invasive species (Roy et al. 2023). In particular, St. Eustatius (Caribbean Netherlands; 21 km2) has faced several introductions of non-native herpetofauna, including the Montserrat Whistling Frog (Eleutherodactylus montserratae; Yuan et al. 2022; Hedges 2022; Powell et al. 2015), the Tropical House Gecko (Hemidactylus mabouia; Powell et al. 2015), the Green Iguana (Iguana iguana species complex; Debrot et al. 2022; van den Burg et al. 2018), and the Brahminy Blindsnake (Indotyphlops braminus; Powell et al. 2015). More recently, the establishment of the Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) and the Smooth-scaled Tegulet (Gymnophthalmus underwoodi) has been described (Thibaudier et al. 2023). Here, we report another newly introduced species on St. Eustatius, the Cuban Treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis.
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Thibaudier et al. (2025) studied this question.
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