Grand Case to Marigot via Ponte Arago

This morning I took a walk from Grand Case to Marigot, traveling past Friar’s Bay, Ponte Arago and Galisbay. From Grand Case, I took the back road to Friar’s Bay, where I found a lizard I had not seen before beneath a tire beside the road. Initially, I assumed it was a juvenile skink, which was the only known lizard on Saint Martin it could have been. After consulting guides and the internet on my return, it seems to be a microteiid, two species of which are found in the Lesser Antilles: Gymnopthalmus pleii and G. underwoodi. Microteiids can be easily distinguished from skinks and ground lizards because they have only four toes on their front feet, so this looks to be a very interesting discovery.

Continuing past Friar’s Bay, I took Rue Batterie to the shore and walked down a rocky beach that was littered with many things, including large bones that I guessed to be cow bones. The trail around Pointe Arago began just past the beach and headed up a hillside above some rocky cliffs and around towards Galisbay. Near the trail, I found a near-entire cow skeleton. Although the flesh was entirely gone, the contents of the cow’s stomach remained as a large mass of grass fibers surrounded by the bones.

While in this area I found a large number of house geckos (Hemidactylus mabouia) hiding beneath stones and logs, including some hatched and unhatched eggs. They were very quick to run when their hiding places were overturned, and it was interesting to note that I almost always found them in pairs.

2 Responses to “Grand Case to Marigot via Ponte Arago”

  1. Bell Hill and Bell Point | Les Fruits De Mer Says:

    […] a boulder, but it seemed empty save for a few scattered goat bones. I also saw two of the very small microteiid that I had seen on the way to Friar’s Bay and a bird egg that had perhaps been washed out of the nest by the recent […]

  2. Views from Pea Tree Hill | Les Fruits De Mer Says:

    […] lowland forest and hilly pasture. Heading up the hill I encountered a few cows, saw my mysterious microteiid and surprisingly few […]