Animals

[hugo]

The group on Ram's Head are very much goats. Sheep are confined to Coral Bay now, and are easy to spot because of the size of the flock. Island Time's photo of the mama and child are totally sheep--can't you see it in their faces?
The deer and iguanas really are a mystery. Deer were supposedly brought to the VI about 200 years ago for the sport of the upper class. They have certainly been on St. John since at least the early 20th century, but they were only at Lameshure and maybe Reef Bay until the 80s. Most people on the island had never seen one until then, myself included.
There was an indigenous iguana, but apparently it was extinct on all the islands except Anegada by the time of European settlement. The present iguana is from South America, and it is believed to have been brought up by the Tainos as a food source (tastes like chicken... really), but it began to be considered very lower class to eat them by the 1930s. They were fairly common on St. Thomas straight along, but extremely rare on St. John, only ever seen at Chocolate Hole. I never saw one outside that area until about 1988...

[jmq]

Stand off on Virgin Gorda.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FV ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8poT_jdtsYw/SGpwE ... 2.JPG"></a>

They were trotting down the road when we came up behind them. Momma stopped and stared us down. Think if she charged seemed like she coulda flipped the little 2 door we were in.

[Lex]

And on to the world of reptiles:

[JT]

The group on Ram's Head are very much goats. Sheep are confined to Coral Bay now, and are easy to spot because of the size of the flock. Island Time's photo of the mama and child are totally sheep--can't you see it in their faces?..

Hugo, thanks for clarifying the Ram Head herd as being goats. If you had told me that they were sheep then I was going to start insisting that those things that people call donkeys are really stripe-less zebras because they really didn't need their stripes in Coral Bay.

[AquaGirl]

This is such a great thread with awesome pictures. Makes me smile - thanks to everyone for posting.
Some day, I am going to get the photographer in our family (hubby, not me) to put his pics on-line so I can share some too.

[MarkR]

Here is a picture of a mongoose taken in the distance.

<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i48.tinypic.com/rt3orq.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

[michigancouple]

Thanks for posting the pic of the mongoose. My daughter was flipping out over the fact that we will see Mongoose...Mongooses...Mongeese? while we are there in March. She wanted to see what one looked like in a picture first, I guess.

[NoTanLines]

Thanks for posting the pic of the mongoose. My daughter was flipping out over the fact that we will see Mongoose...Mongooses...Mongeese? while we are there in March. She wanted to see what one looked like in a picture first, I guess.

Mongoose dem.

[liamsaunt]

I just remembered this dog we met on Gibney beach. I am not a huge dog fan, but had fun playing with this one.

Digging:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/3288453773/" title="17 Gibney dog digging by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3502/328 ... 5c3a4e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="17 Gibney dog digging"></a>


Sleeping dog:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/3288456537/" title="19 Gibney dog sleeping by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3389/328 ... f26035.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="19 Gibney dog sleeping"></a>

[Rob7]

I just remembered this dog we met on Gibney beach. I am not a huge dog fan, but had fun playing with this one.

"your not a huge dog fan"....well I have someone that weighs 108 pounds and wants to meet with you

[cptnkirk]

Great pics guys. I'm with ya if Hugo said those were sheep I was going to call him out on that one. He did straighten me out some time ago on the sheep in Coral Bay. That tail thing really works well. If ya just glance at them in passing you swear there goats. I took a close look at there faces last trip and you can tell there sheep. Little cuter than those goats IMHO.
Mark great shot of the ever elusive Mongoose. I have yet to have gotten a good shot.

Ok heres a few that no one has posted yet. Any one got one of a pig I have yet to see one on our trips.



Ok gotta post one of Dickhead, he reallly took a liking to that big belly

[Pianogrl]

AWWW...Sam.....I miss that cat!

[Cid]

I'm surprised that you got such a good mongoose picture. We saw a couple, but they scurried off way too fast to get a picture. Cool!

[MarkR]

I was lucky to get the mongoose picture while hiking the Mary Point trail that goes through the Caneel Resort property.

[Marcia (Mrs. Pete)]

Eewwwwwww, Kirk...those bats. They totally creep me out.