homework questions

For a school project, I need to know what animals live in your country, what kind of clothes you where, and how do you celebrate the winter holiday season. Are there any interesting facts you can tell us about the Dominican Republic? Thank you for all your help. Allie

Cats
Dogs
Rats
Really big rats that look like opossums
Frogs & Crabs
Lots of pretty and rare birds (There is even a one-eyed parrot in San Pedro de Macorís)
Lizards
Crocodiles
Am I missing any, guys?

For Christmas stuff click on these:
http://dr1.com/board/index.cgi?read=74186
http://dr1.com/2000/index.cgi?read=41732
They are thanks to TW and Natasha and are excellent descripitons. They are complimentary so read both.
They probably celebrate Chanukka (sp?) in the North...Can someone help with this?

Dominicans dress just like people in New York, and the poor people wear lots of gold chains and vago jeans. It's a brand like Wrangler or Roebucks or Jordache. The only people who dress differently are tourists. They tend to wear shorts and tacky shirts and silly hats. I think that way when they get lost in places like Alcarizzos and Las Caletas people will spot them easily and be able to help them.

What am I missing? Help Allie out. Good luck on your project.

Loren: Nice description, specially your Alcarrizos notation. By the way I came up with our famous Manati, the almost extinct Iguanas from Lago Enriquillo, The Juron, a large rodent that has not been seen lately very much. Dominican Cotorras which you mentioned are now an endangered species along with the Perico.

There is also Wild Boar(a smaller species) and Wild Goats. Non-poisonous green and brown snakes are very common. La Cacata or Dominican Tarantula is hunted for tourists and is possibly in danger too. We have plenty of native Scorpions and Centipedes, if insects were included in the request. That's all I can think of right now.

Oh, I forgot...the domesticated Pajuil(Peacock)and the Guaraguao, a falcon.

TW

going to be dedicated to Birds.
Hooray for Anabella Dodd, whose book is the best on Dominican Birds.
The juron is the mongoose, imported here to hunt rats in the cane fields but it turned out to be an ecological disaster since rats forage by night and the mongooses by day...

there is also an animal called the celiodontus(??HELP!!) or something like that . it is or maybe WAS the only Native mammel.

They haven';t been seen for a while.

We have beautiful hawks, owls and lots of little birds like hummingbirds. The new Calender deim BHD/Coldwell-Banker has some of them and I think there will be another one out shortly.

Do read the article by Natasha onChristmas traditions,

HB

Hillbilly:

I am not sure about that mongoose thing. I have never heard of the mongoose being in this island. I have never seen or heard of one. The Juron, for all I know, is a native species and does not look at all like the mongoose. A mongoose loose in DR would be quite a dangerous spectacle. That's a very ferocious little critter.

TW

I'd like to add to the list "the Roosters" which kept me up incessantly while staying in Puerto Plata...they obviously can't tell time!

Cockadoodeldoo indeed!!

On our not-so-recent tour to the national park in Cabarete, we were told that there are mongoose on the island.

marc

Either because or in spite of the fact that Dominicans are deathly afraid of them.

I once found a huge one in my house that was maybe as big as any of the giant tarantulas seen on tv. I called a Dominican man to look at it out of curiosity. He came running with a broomstick. I stopped him, explaining that they eat a lot of insects, especially cockroaches. He retorted that they are poisonous enough to kill cattle, although he finally admitted, after intense grilling, that he couldn't substantiate it.

Anyway, yes they still exist, at least in the country, and no, they are not dangerous to animals as large as humans. No human is documented to have died from a tarantula (any tarantula) bite.

Hillbilly, the hutias and solendon (a type of rodent) are supposedly still extant. I believe there are a couple in the zoo in Santo Domingo; in the wild I'm sure they are endangered but supposedly they still exist. You are right about the mongoose, I have seen mongoose on the north coast hunting at dusk in isolated fields.