Meet David Rooks, he has been a lifelong naturalist and student of naturefor all his life.  David has over 30 years of experience in the tourism industry and is a living library on the environment and the Birds of Trinidad &Tobago and South America, an evening in his company is priceless.

National Geographic Adventure Magazine highlighted David as Birdbrain (Feb. 2007, pg. 74)

Following is one if Davidfs many hobbies – An insight into our islands Natural History.

Tobago is beautiful because of its natural history.

It is a tiny unique isolated island that during the last ice age was connected to the continent of South America.  That left us with four distinct types of forest, each with different and plentiful flora and fauna.

Its flora adapted to different growing conditions and its fauna adapting to match the environment.  The four types of forest; the wetlands, the mangroves and marshes that support wetland type birds such as herons, egrets and ducks and fauna such as raccoons and iguanas.  We have many surviving species of mammals, such as raccoons, squirrels, armadillo, agouti, and peccary.  Many mammals were hunted to extinction professionally during the colonial era; such as otters, ocelots, foxes and muskrats.  They were hunted for their pelts, while monkeys and macaws were exported as exotic pets.  Some reptile skins were exported too, namely iguanas and caiman to make fashionable hand bags and shoes.

The seashore was fringed by Littoral woodlands with a variety of perching birds, pigeons, doves, woodpeckers, humming birds, raptors and woodcreepers.   One dominant tree was the seagrape which everything loves to eat.  Including us, you can find this fruit bearing during the dry season especially in summer.

Next, came the Seasonal Deciduous Forest.  Forest that thrived in impoverished soil that dried out quickly in the dry season.  The trees drop their leaves to reduce transpiration (moisture loss).  This forest supports a variety of birds and animals, many of the trees, replace their leaves with fruit for the seeds to be on the ground ready for the next rainy season, in the mean time the birds will be feeding on them and distributing them even more efficiently.

All Deciduous Forest fruit are produced at this time and provides food for a great range of fauna.  One of the strange sights is to see thousands of laughing gulls swarming the branches of Manjack Trees (Cordia Collococa) whose masses of red berries the gulls need, to get nutritious chemicals, in time for the about to start, breeding season.

This forest can be very dry and hot at ground level as the canopy is not open.  It does not support a lot of canopy growth such as philodendrons and lianas.  The only virgin example is that on Little Tobago.  Then, there is the Rain Forest, virgin since possibly before the last great ice age and protected by law since April, 1776, for the preservation of the rains.  This forest covers most of the main mountain range in Tobago.  Visiting this forest is like visiting the AMAZON, easily.  It takes no more than an hour to get there from your hotel.

There are 210 species of birds listed for Tobago, this includes residents and migrants.  There are two types of migrants, normal winter migrants and summer breeders.  The former may be seen anywhere, but the latter, over the sea or in specific breeding zones.

Among the winter migrants are the Peregrine Falcon and the Osprey.

The Breeding season on Little Tobago runs from January to July.  During that period there are always lots of birds to see.  Little Tobagofs star is the Red-billed Tropic Bird; it breeds from December to July.

More details about these natural phenomena will be readily given while on tour and your questions answered.

We also offer a complete history which covers back to 2,500 BCE to the end of WWII, 1942, with a battle in Scarborough.

We also have a Round the Island Tour which allows you to know and take pictures of this beautiful island while being told about it.

David Rooks