Wild Tobago

Birds with shared interests – safety, food, similar nesting spaces – often roost in and traverse the forest together. These mixed-species flocks are a boon for the birder, according to Faraaz Abdool. All photos by Faraaz Abdool   In tropical rainforests, we imagine that the trees must be positively dripping with birds. Massive, bromeliad-laden boughs thirty metres in the canopy should be cradling all manner of avian diversity. Our imagination conjures toucans skipping over tanagers and honeycreepers in pursuit of the finest berry, as hummingbirds linger on the periphery, eager to sip from the nectar of delicate epiphyte blooms. Sometimes, or often, we put ourselves in a place like this and find a deafening silence. In forests that span hundreds, even thousands of square kilometres, one can easily spend a couple hours scanning without result at the risk of neck strain. Hope rises again upon the arrival of a mixed-species flock. The self-explanatory “mixed-spe...

Anjani Ganase joins the team to survey coral reefs which innovates a process that allows scientists to monitor the health of corals The experience on Heron Island working on my master’s research led to the opportunity to map coral reefs of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) for the XL Catlin Seaview Survey. This project had two main purposes: outreach, by bringing coral reefs to people using 360-degree imagery to create an immersive learning experience. The second purpose was scientific using the camera technology to create one of the largest visual baselines of the Great Barrier Reef from which researchers extract information on reef composition and study the spatial patterns of this expansive reef system. For me, it was the ultimate dream job. As the marine technician, I was tasked with collecting all the imagery and associated data for all the sites during the four-month excursion from the Southern Great Barrier Reef to the Far North GBR and Coral Sea. It was ...

Anjani Ganase continues to relate her journey to ocean scientist. She spends eight months on Heron Island and lives among the creatures who feel safe there. I thought that the island I grew up on was small. Then I moved to a tiny island called Heron Island in the Southern Great Barrier Reef for eight months to study the impacts of climate change on corals. I thought my island upbringing would prepare me for the sea life, but this opportunity to study coral reefs came with a full immersive experience of living in the marine environment. Heron Island is a two-hour boat ride from the mainland (Gladstone) of Australia and sits in the outer Great Barrier Reef. Heron Island, about 800 m long and 300 m wide, and as the name suggests, houses a colony of herons among other marine birds such as sooty shearwaters and noddy terns. As lovely as this sounds, no one mentioned the eye-watering smell of bird guano or the haunting sounds of hooting shearwaters in the night – the h...

Shivonne Peters-McPherson discusses the changing face of the popular party site in the Buccoo Reef Marine Park. All photos courtesy Shivonne Peters-McPherson Tobago has long been known for her diverse, pristine and unique marine environments, spanning colourful coral reefs, dense mangroves and white sand beaches. This beauty propelled the island’s popularity in the 1990’s and 2000’s as an ‘unspoilt’ destination, perfect for visitors seeking a benign nature experience. Along the island’s south-western coastline, beaches such as Pigeon Point, Mount Irvine Bay and Store Bay are popular. Underwater adventures are found on coral reefs such as Kariwak Reef off Store Bay, or reefs off the northern coast such as Charlotteville and Speyside. Among Tobago’s top beaches, one specific beach is memorable, No Man’s Land.   In 2020, the occasional boat visited No Man’s Land     No Man’s Land is now a regular stop for food and liming on many tour operators’ itinera...