Repatriation St. Croix ground lizard

The ability to control organisms that become invasive in novel regions is a fundamental problem in conservation biology. We are working on a paper titled, “Repatriating species when threats exist”. The prevailing view has been that so long as threats, such as invasive predators, remain present there is little chance of repatriating vulnerable endangered species. Our research suggests otherwise. Here, find data on the St. Croix ground lizard, among the rarest lizards in the world, and the invasive Indian mongoose, which wiped out this lizard and many other endemic species in the Caribbean and elsewhere. By comparing the historical configuration of landscapes on St. Croix to the modern landscape, our analyses revealed that mongoose are not evenly distributed across St. Croix. The agricultural and deforested landscape of the past has regenerated and been reconfigured in a way that allows many refugia for populations of the target species. Thus, our results indicate the species can be repatriated to St. Croix despite the continued presence of landscapes. The work has broad implications for repatriating endangered species. By more explicitly taking landscape configuration into account, management strategies can be aimed at identifying potential sites for repatriation when threats still exist in the historic range.