Eighty new wildlife species discovered on Caribbean island

This 12 July 2015 video is called St Eustatius National Parks Foundation (marine park).

Translated from Naturalis museum in the Netherlands:

Monday, October 26th, 2015

During a two-week expedition to the Caribbean Dutch island of St. Eustatius this month, at least eighty new species of animals and plants have been discovered. These include beetles, flies, bees, snails, plants and even a bat and four birds. The species had been known from islands elsewhere in the Caribbean, but not from St. Eustatius. However, the researchers do not exclude that some species may be new to the Caribbean or even to science. …

The researchers found during the expedition new species in unexpected places. For example, they discovered in an abandoned pool some water beetles and a pondskater. In an ancient cistern duckweed was floating, a carcass of a cow contained hide beetles, from various places on the island came new snail species, and during a night with mist nets in the volcano The Quill (“pit”), a new bat was caught. Many of these specimens need to be investigated further at Naturalis in order to get their proper names.

At various plots more than 250 traps were set to catch insects and other invertebrates. The proceeds of this catch will be investigated later with the help of DNA techniques, meaning that the number of 80 new species is expected to rise further.

Paleontologists report they have clear evidence that the arrival of humans and subsequent human activity throughout the islands of the Caribbean were likely the primary causes of the extinction of native mammal species there. The evidence, they say, highlights the need for urgent human intervention to protect the native mammal species still inhabiting the region: here.