Puerto Rico Habitat Insight

Almost rectangular in shape, the Puerto Rican mainland is 153 km in length and 58 km in width. Vieques, Culebra and Mona are tiny islands that are also part of the Puerto Rican territory. Sandy beaches run almost all around the island encircling the craggy mountains that occupy most of the interior. These mountains are mostly of volcanic origin though they haven’t witnessed any activity of late.

The northeastern region is covered by tropical rainforests, the El Yunque Tropical Rainforest, that is home to a number of birds, reptiles as well as tress. An astonishing 240 varieties of trees grow in this area. The Puerto Rican parrot can be spotted flying about.

As you move westwards, the terrain becomes steeper and is pockmarked with caves. But further west, the mountains slope down to greet the Caribbean waters and form a nice long, sandy coastline.

Southwards, the region turns drier and there are pockets of mangrove forests. However, since the region is much drier, these mangrove swamps are fairly small and trees on the outer fringes rarely survive. Interestingly these skeleton trunks later become home to a number of birds. The 1,620 Guanica Forest in the southwest is pocket of lush green forest that is home to the largest number of bird species that can be found on the island. This forest also supports about 700 varieties of plant life out of which 48 are endangered.

The incessant chanting in the background is of the coquis, the native tree frog of Puerto Rico. The inch-long frog is hard to spot but undoubtedly, you’ll hear it!