Guana Island is an island of the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

(BVI) in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. One of the few remaining privately owned islands in its part of the world, Guana has seven white powder-sand beaches and of tropical forest, mountains, hills, and valleys. The island is mostly natural preserve and has a small

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel ...

History

In the 18th century, two

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

families came to Guana as part of what was called " the Quaker Experiment" which lasted for about forty-five years in the BVI. They used

African slaves Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were once commonplace in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient and medieval world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea sl ...

and cultivated

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

. When they were recalled to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, they left behind two

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

s still on Guana today.

Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

have extensively studied the Quaker ruins and have also unearthed older artifacts that give insight into Guana's earlier

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

history. Beth and Louis Bigelow of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

purchased Guana in 1934. With the help of local men they built six stone cottages and developed a reputation as creative pioneers. Their guests - professionals, intellectuals and world travelers - came for months at a time, attracted to the simple but rich life.

Current

Henry and Gloria Jarecki bought Guana in 1975 and began improving accommodations and other facilities with the goal of maintaining the island's historic style and ambiance. An interest in conservation led them to establish a long-term restoration program to protect the island's flora and fauna and bring back once-common species..

Flora and fauna

Scientists say that Guana has more flora and fauna than any island of its size yet studied in the Caribbean and possibly the world.Guana Island , Nature , Flora & Fauna
The island provides habitat for the Puerto Rican racer ('' Alsophis portoricensis''), the

common Puerto Rican ameiva The common Puerto Rican ameiva, Puerto Rican ground lizard, or siguana común (''Pholidoscelis exsul'') is a species of lizard in the whiptail family.

(''Ameiva exsul''), the

crested anole ''Anolis cristatellus'' is a small species of anole, belonging to the Dactyloidae family of reptiles. The species is native to Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, with introduced populations in locations around the Caribbean. T ...

(''Anolis cristatellus wileyae''), the

sharp-mouthed lizard ''Anolis pulchellus'', the Puerto Rican anole, Puerto Rican bush anole, snake anole, or sharp-mouthed lizard, is a small species of anole lizard in the family Dactyloidae. The species is among the most common lizards in Puerto Rico, and also nat ...

(''Anolis pulchellus''), barred anole (''

Anolis stratulus ''Anolis stratulus'' is a moderately-sized species of anole () (family Dactyloidae) found in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. It is a gray-colored lizard spotted with brown markings. It is arboreal, us ...

''), green iguana (''

Iguana iguana The green iguana (''Iguana iguana''), also known as the American iguana or the common green iguana, is a large, arboreal, mostly herbivorous species of lizard of the genus ''Iguana''. Usually, this animal is simply called the iguana. The green ...

''),

big-scaled least gecko There are two species of gecko named big-scaled least gecko: * ''Sphaerodactylus macrolepis'', distributed in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean * '' Sphaerodactylus grandisquamis'', endem ...

(''Sphaerodactylus macrolepis macrolepis''), and the Richard's worm snake (''Typhlops richardi''). The restoration program has brought extirpated species back to Guana and other

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...

. The stout iguana had survived only on

Anegada Anegada is the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It lies about north of Virgin Gorda. Anegada is the only inhabited British Virgin Island formed from ...

but now flourishes on Guana and lives on other islands as well. Other plant and animal species that have been restored and protected include the red-legged tortoise, the

bridled quail-dove The bridled quail-dove (''Geotrygon mystacea'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found from Saint Lucia in the Lesser Antilles north and west to Puerto Rico.Boal, C. W. (2020). Bridled Quail-Dove (''Geotrygon mystacea''), ver ...

, the

Caribbean flamingo The American flamingo (''Phoenicopterus ruber'') is a large species of flamingo native to the West Indies, northern South America (including the Galápagos Islands) and the Yucatán Peninsula. It is closely related to the greater flamingo and Chi ...

, the

white-crowned pigeon The white-crowned pigeon (''Patagioenas leucocephala'') is a fruit and seed-eating species of bird in the dove and pigeon family Columbidae. It is found primarily in the Caribbean. John James Audubon painted these pigeons, including the waterco ...

, Eggers' mallow tree, the Virgin Islands euphorb, Hohenberg's ground

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...

, and a unique bromeliad found nowhere else. Guana also has three

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

areas. White Bay is a set of parallel patch reefs in shallow water, where there are no strong waves or currents. The reefs are home to about 100 tropical reef fishes, waving gorgonians called fan corals, and the various species of hard

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

s. Muskmelon Bay is a deep bay with reefs at 60 to . Large,

oceanic fish Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reefs. ...

es like

tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...

and

king mackerel The king mackerel (''Scomberomorus cavalla'') surmayi or kingfish, is a migratory species of mackerel of the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. It is an important species to both the commercial and recreational fishing industries. Descri ...

may be seen there. North Bay is a windward, rough-water bay with deep reefs and wrecks.

References

External links

Guana Island resort
{{Authority control Private islands of the British Virgin Islands