On St. Croix, mongooses came in 1884 to protect cane; they were later linked to native ground lizard loss and a racers presumed extinction
In 1884, St. Croix had a rat problem in its sugarcane fields, and a small predator seemed like the perfect answer. According to a study in the journal Oryx by Nicole Angeli and Lee Fitzgerald, small Indian mongooses were brought to the island to control those rats. Over the following decades, a native lizard disappeared … Read more