In the central Cockpit Country the limestone has eroded into a rugged karst landscape with sinkholes, hollows, and caves and caverns.

[3] The separate Jamaican dry forests ecoregion covers the southern and northwestern coastal areas.

[1] Black River Lower Morass, located in the lower reaches of the Black River on the southwestern shore of the island, is Jamaica's largest wetland, and includes areas of open wetland, freshwater swamp forest, peatland, and coastal mangrove.

The black-billed streamertail (Trochilus scitulus) is limited to the eastern Blue and John Crow mountains.

[5] Three widespread threatened species are found on Jamaica – the resident West Indian whistling duck (Dendrocygna arborea) and plain pigeon (Patagioenas inornata), and the piping plover (Charadrius melodus), a winter visitor.

The Jamaican petrel (Pterodroma caribbaea) is a seabird that once bred in large numbers in the forests of the Blue and John Crow mountains.

The only other terrestrial mammal is the Jamaican hutia (Geocapromys brownii), a rabbit-sized rodent endemic to Jamaica which mostly lives in the island's eastern, central and southern mountains.

[3] The ecoregion is threatened by forest clearance for agriculture and timber, hunting, and introduced species.

It is an adaptable predator which has preyed heavily on native vertebrates, particularly the island's reptiles and amphibians.