Nature on the Estate

Red-footed tortoises roam Canouan freely: over the golf course, through the gardens and up the hill paths. They are a South American species, probably brought to the islands by people long ago, most likely the first Amerindian settlers, who carried them by canoe. Nobody has ever counted them. Look, but do not lift or feed them, and give way on paths and cart tracks.

Hawksbill turtles have been recorded nesting on Canouan's beaches, and leatherbacks at Mahault Bay in the north-east. We do not yet have recent counts.

On the windward, Atlantic side, a reef runs from the north end of Shell Beach to Barbruce Bay in the south. Canouan Marine Reserve was designated in 1987 and covers 11.8 km². Snorkel gear is complimentary at Shell Beach.

Canouan's own woodland is dry: gumbo-limbo, West Indian locust and white cedar, with cactus and agave on the rock and buttonwood and sea grape by the shore. Mount Royal was the one part of the island never cultivated, and in 1950 the botanist Richard Howard found wild orchids and bromeliads there. The gardens around the villas are planted with frangipani, bougainvillea, ixora and pride of Barbados. Wild orchids and the Turk's-cap cactus are protected by international law: photograph them, never pick them.

The manchineel grows on some Caribbean shores. Its sap blisters the skin and its small green fruit burns the mouth; never shelter under it in rain.

Brown boobies, magnificent frigatebirds and red-billed tropicbirds are seabirds of the Grenadines, and the islands are among the easiest places to see tropicbirds.