“The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is very excited by its partnership with Resorts World Bimini and Bahamas Ocean Sports Authority (BOSA) in bringing back offshore powerboat racing to The Bahamas. The thrilling event is the result of a partnership between Resorts World Bimini, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and The Bahamas Ocean Sports Authority (BOSA). Races kick off Friday, April 28 th and continue until Saturday, April 29 th at Resorts World Bimini. This will be the first time the event will take place outside the United States. This time the tiny Bahamian island, just 50 miles off Florida, will host the Offshore Powerboat Association’s (OPA) and the American Power Boat Association’s (APBA) powerboat grand prix. The Antiguan racer ( Alsophis antiguae) is a harmless rear-fanged ( opisthoglyphous) grey-brown snake that was until recently found only on Great Bird Island off the coast of Antigua, in the eastern Caribbean.Bimini powerboat races set to blast off April 28, 2017.īimini is gearing up to host another major event in 2017. It is among the rarest snakes in the world. However, in the last 20 years, conservation efforts have boosted numbers from an estimated 50 to over 1,100 individuals by eradicating non-native predators and reintroducing the snake to other Antiguan islands in its original range. In addition to Great Bird Island, the Antiguan racer has successfully recolonised the nearby Rabbit Island, Green Island, and York Island. The Antiguan racer is a snake that belongs to the family Dipsadinae, which includes about half of the world's known snake species. It belongs to the genus Alsophis, which contains several species of West Indian racers. Many West Indian racers are threatened or extinct. The adult racer is typically about 1 m long, with females being larger than the males. Young adult males are usually dark brown with light creamy markings, while young females are silvery-gray with pale brown patches and markings. Females also have larger heads than the males. However, older individuals of both sexes can be highly variable in colour hue and pattern, and are frequently heavily speckled or blotched in a range of hues, including white, taupe, reddish brown, brown, and black. The Antiguan racer originally inhabited Antigua and Barbuda and probably all of the islands on the Antigua Bank. The island is extremely small at only 8.4 hectares.īy 1995, the species was found only on Great Bird Island, a small island 2.5 km off of the northeast coast of Antigua. It prefers to live in shady woodlands with dense undergrowth, although it is also found on sandy beaches and rocky outcrops. The Antiguan racer is harmless to humans and has a gentle temperament. It is diurnal, being active from dawn to dusk.
The Antiguan racer appears to have poor resistance to common snake mites, which are not naturally found in Antigua, which has ended some attempts at captive breeding. The racer primarily eats a diet of lizards, including the local Antiguan ground lizard. While the species sometimes hunts for its food, it is typically an ambush predator, waiting for prey with most of its body buried beneath leaves. In the centuries before the Europeans arrived in Antigua, the Antiguan racers were numerous and widespread. The thick forest that covered the islands teemed with lizards, the snakes' favored prey, and the racer had no natural predators to threaten it. In the late 15th century, European settlers began to colonize and develop Antigua and Barbuda for huge plantations of sugarcane. The ships that brought slaves to the island (and those that also or instead carried away rum or other tropical products) also brought rats. Feasting on the sugarcane and, among other things, the eggs of the Antiguan racer, the rat population rocketed. The plantation owners, desperate to rid themselves of the rats, introduced Asian mongooses to kill the rats. However, they failed to realize that black rats ( Rattus rattus) are mainly nocturnal, while the mongooses prefer to hunt during the day. The mongooses preyed heavily on the native ground-nesting birds, frogs, lizards, and Antiguan racers. Within 60 years, the snake had vanished completely from Antigua and most of its offshore islands, and many believed that it had become extinct. However, a few Antiguan racers survived on a tiny mongoose-free island known as Great Bird Island. A 3-month survey by conservation biologists from Fauna & Flora International found only 50 individuals alive in 1995. Ĭonservation work quickly got under way with the eradication of rats, which threatened the racers on Great Bird Island. In 1996, five adult racers were collected and sent to the Jersey Zoo for the first attempt at captive breeding.
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