Animals in Cuba

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, a long, narrow country of about 10 million people surrounded by thousands of smaller islands and cays. Millions of years of isolation from the mainland have given it plants and animals found nowhere else, especially among its reptiles, frogs and birds. The climate is tropical, warm all year, with a rainy season from about May to October and hurricanes possible in late summer and autumn. Most of the island is low and rolling, covered by farmland, palm savannas and patches of forest, but three mountain ranges rise in the west, the center and the east, where the Sierra Maestra reaches almost 2,000 meters and the last large native forests hide the tocororo, the national bird, and the Cuban hutia, the island's largest native land mammal. Along the coasts, mangroves and lagoons feed great flocks of flamingos, and the Zapata Swamp, the biggest wetland in the Caribbean, shelters manatees in its channels. Offshore, coral reefs ring the island and hold sea turtles, dolphins and sharks.

People and wildlife have shaped each other for centuries. Sugar cane and cattle cleared much of the old forest, and wild boars, brought by Spanish settlers, now roam rural areas. Today Cuba protects a large network of parks: Alejandro de Humboldt and Desembarco del Granma national parks are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and Jardines de la Reina, a long chain of cays off the south coast, has been protected since 1996 and is one of the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean.

Tourism often meets wildlife. Visitors watch flamingos from the causeway to Cayo Coco, dive with sharks at Jardines de la Reina, take boats through the Zapata Swamp and hike in the valleys of Viñales and the mountains of the east looking for the tocororo.

Cuba is one of the safest places in the Caribbean when it comes to wildlife. There are no large land predators and no venomous snakes on the island, so the animals that can be dangerous are few. In rural areas, wild boars may charge if they are cornered or protecting their young, especially when they meet dogs or hunters.

The real risks are at sea. Several kinds of large shark live around the island: some come into shallow water near beaches and river mouths, others hunt along the outer reefs and deep channels, and at Jardines de la Reina many of them come close to divers but rarely cause trouble. Large predatory fish with long, toothy jaws live around the reefs and can bite if a shiny object or a speared fish catches their eye. Incidents are very uncommon, and most happen when people spearfish, feed animals or swim in murky water at dawn or dusk. Swimming at guarded beaches, diving with a guide, taking off shiny jewelry and never feeding wild animals keep visitors safe, and the sun and sea currents are usually bigger risks than any animal.

Cuba's best known animals come mostly from the sea that surrounds it, with a few special ones on land. Sharks are the big draw for divers: at Jardines de la Reina, off the south coast, reef sharks gather by the dozen around boats, and tiger sharks and bull sharks hunt along the outer reefs and channels, while Playa Santa Lucía in Camagüey is known for bull shark dives. Bottlenose dolphins swim along the coast and often ride the bow waves of passing boats near Varadero. Pink flamingos gather by the thousands on the northern cays, easy to see from the causeway to Cayo Coco, and the biggest nesting colony is in the wetlands of the Río Máximo, in Camagüey. Peregrine falcons arrive in winter to hunt along cliffs and even over cities, and barn owls hunt over farmland at night. Sea turtles nest on quiet beaches of the south coast and the cays in summer. On land, the Cuban hutia lives in forests and mangroves, the tocororo calls from the mountain woods, and wild boars roam farmland and forest edges.