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These island forests are home to many endemic tropical plants and animals, including a number of ancient, relict species. This Global 200 ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Puerto Rican moist forests; Hispaniolan moist forests; Jamaican moist forests; Cuban moist forests Long ago, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico were connected to the continent of North America. They share a few species but most are unique to the Greater Antilles. They are now home to stretches of moist forests that echo with the whistles, trills, and calls of many small creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Cuba is notable among these islands not only for its rich plant life, but also because it is home to a diversity of land snails.
The large islands of this ecoregion have long been isolated from the surrounding continents. As a result, they have evolved many endemic species of plants and animals. And they have retained certain life forms that survive from ancient times. In fact, many of the primitive and ancient lineages that still survive in the Greater Antilles are now extinct on nearby continents.
Island-hop through the Greater Antilles and you may be able to see a number of the region's unusual and endangered species. At night, you may come across a small mammal called the solerodon as it roots around in the ground for insects and spiders. Nighttime is also the best time to see the region's fishing bat and the rare Hispaniolan hutia--a muskrat-sized rodent. During the daylight hours, Jamaican woodpeckers hop up and down tree trunks probing for insects under the bark. Rare arrow-headed warblers snap up insects from the branches or leaf litter. Puerto Rican warblers, yellow-shouldered blackbirds, and zapata sparrows sing in the trees, and Jamaican swallowtail butterflies flit among the flowers.
Expanding production of cacao, coffee, and tobacco threaten some parts of this ecoregion, as do firewood gathering, grazing, fire, and exploitive hunting.
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