Little Tobago: a walk in the woods
First published in Newsday TT on April 21, 2022. Here is the text with a few more photos. Pat Ganase revisits Little Tobago after 32 years for a stroll into the past. Photos by Pat Ganase. 1990: looking down the cliffs towards the wild sea 1990: living dangerously with Jet, 8 week old pup 1990: Wordsworth Frank leads the tour In 1909, Sir William Ingram, a British peer and politician and managing director of the Illustrated London News, bought the small star-shaped island off the north-east coast of Tobago. He would turn it into a bird sanctuary to accommodate a small colony of the Greater Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea apoda) which was over-hunted in its native New Guinea for feathers for ladies hats. Two dozen nesting pairs were introduced - and the island which had in the late 18 th century produced a very high yield of cotton per acre - became known as Bird of Paradise island. In 1924, after Sir William died, the island was deeded to the Governm...