Every year we celebrate March as Virgin Islands History Month. It was former Sen. Shawn Michael Malone who sponsored Act 6802 in 2006, which set aside March as Virgin Islands History Month. With that being said, the environment has played a key role in our culture and history, especially to those who have made great contributions to the preservation and studies of wildlife in the Virgin Islands.
Wildlife conservation in the Virgin Islands didn’t start with modern humans. Rather, it started with the indigenous people of these islands who lived with nature and managed the natural resources. They knew by their human biological instinct (common sense) to take from the land what they need, not what they want. Therefore, they were true scientists in the real sense of the word, exploring and testing their surrounding environment and understanding the ecological system of nature they lived in.
In the 20th century, Harry A. Beatty, George A. Seaman, Axel Lambert, Richard Bond, and Anton Teytaud were known in their era as naturalists and scientists. These men collected all sorts of specimens from the wild. They swam and fished in the island’s streams, swam in the sea, and identified plants species, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, etc.
I will focus on Harry A. Beatty, a native naturalist of the Virgin Islands. In the 1900s, Harry’s father immigrated to the Danish Island of St. Croix from Ireland. His father became a planter, owning Estate Constitution Hill where he grew sugarcane and other agricultural crops. What attracted Harry’s father to St. Croix was the pleasant climate, hardworking and hospitable Crucian people, hunting wildlife, and fishing in the sea.
Like so many of his compatriots, Harry’s father decided to remain on St. Croix, married, and raised a family that became part of the island’s cultural way of life. Harry Beatty was a Crucian naturalist, collector, and researcher who was born on St. Croix on Jan. 10, 1902. His mother was Alice Beatty, and his two sisters Beatrice and Alice. As a little boy, Harry developed his interest in the natural world of the islands because of his experiences helping his father on the estate and the connection he had with older Crucians that knew the island wildlife well.
By the time Harry finished high school, he had already made a large collection of island birds. His childhood friend was the late native naturalist George A. Seaman. In Seaman’s book titled “Stick from the Hawk Nest,” he mentions his friend Harry: “Harry and I met early and became inseparable companions sharing as we did an inordinate passion for the outdoors and all things natural. I am happy to say that after more than 50 years this relationship still exists, and our correspondence continues to relate to bats, mongooses, lizards, and deer.”
In Seaman’s last book, titled “Every Shadow Is A Man: A Journey Back into Birds and Time,” he dedicated the book to his good friend Harry Andrew Beatty who shared with him “the magic and beauty of Santa Cruz.” After Harry graduated from Mount Herman School, he studied and worked in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic for a short period of time. In 1929, Harry returned to St. Croix for a while and then went to New York for few months. Later, at the Columbia University Medical School, Harry studied parasitology and tropical medical entomology.
In 1933, a malaria epidemic hit St. Croix and Harry joined the Virgin Islands Health Department to combat the outbreak on the island. From 1940 to 1944, Harry worked with the Pittman-Roberson Deer Research project for the Virgin Islands government under the direction of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. While working for the Virgin Islands government as a parasitologist, Harry found himself involved in a serious incident with Andrew Thompson, a native man of color.
Harry caught Andrew Thompson poaching deer on Estate Cotton Grove — land that he was charged with keeping clear of poachers. Thompson was warned by Harry not to be poaching deer. However, Thompson claimed he killed the animal to feed his family. The incident occurred again several days or weeks after that warning. This time Harry and Thompson had a quarrel. As a result, Harry shot Thompson, claiming that he was defending himself. On June 7, 1944, Harry was charged with second-degree murder. At the trial, Judge Herman E. Moore waived a jury trial and pronounced Harry not guilty.
Well, all hell broke loose on St. Croix. Paul E. Joseph, editor for the West End News, contested the judge’s ruling. To make a long story short, Joseph ended up in jail for speaking out on Thompson’s death. Believe me, his First Amendment rights of free speech were violated. Eventually, Joseph was released from jail. You can search online for “People of Virgin Islands v. Brodhurst, 148 F.2d636” and “By Hon. Geoffrey Barnard, Recalled Magistrate Judge” to learn more about the case of Harry Beatty and Andrew Thompson.
Nevertheless, after the murder incident on St. Croix, Harry left and took a job with Firestone Plantation Company in Liberia, West Africa. He was the director of malaria control in that country. In 1949, Harry led many field expeditions for the Africa Zoology Museum to the Congo, Gabon, and Angola. He spent a large part of his career making collections for well-known museums, including the Ivory Coast in Africa in the 1960s, and the Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History.
From 1960 to 1962, he made many field museum expeditions to Surinam for the study of birds and the collection of mammal skins. He also published widely on numerous fauna of the Virgin Islands including reptiles, mollusks, birds, etc. He became well known internationally for his work in wildlife preservation. Due to his many discoveries of new species, some are now named after him, such as Sphaerodactylus beattyi, which is endemic to St. Croix. Known also as Saint Croix’s sphaero, Beatty’s Least Gecko.
This species of gecko can be found east of Estate Coakley Bay, on the southeast coast of the island, in the south hills of Christiansted, south of Estate Rust Up Twist and on Green Cay, off the northeast coast of St. Croix. He was considered one of the leading naturalists in the Virgin Islands who contributed significantly on a local level as well as nationally and internationally. He died at the age of 87. Believe me, Harry has a place in Virgin Islands wildlife natural history.
— Olasee Davis is a bush professor who lectures and writes about the culture, history, ecology and environment of the Virgin Islands when he is not leading hiking tours of the wild places and spaces of St. Croix and beyond.
