Fauna of the United States Virgin Islands

[1] The animals include numerous native species of tropical birds, fish, and land reptiles as well as sea mammals.

Some of the nonnative land mammals roaming the islands are the white-tailed deer, small Asian mongoose, goats, feral donkeys, rats, mice, sheep, hogs, dogs and cats.

[4]: 24  Besides the bananaquit, there are more than 140 other species of birds, including for instance pelicans, parrots, parakeets, flamingos, herons, egrets, hummingbirds, sea gulls, doves, ospreys, kingfishers and warblers.

[6]: 21  Coquí is the local name used for the most common group of tree frogs found in the Virgin Islands and neighboring Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

European settlers later introduced domesticated species such as donkeys, sheep, goats, horses, chickens, cats, and also local pests such as the rat and the small Asian mongoose.

[2]: 302–303 The small Asian mongoose has been blamed for numerous native extinctions and has reached a density of two animals per acre across the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The waters off the United States Virgin Islands are among the most productive in the world and host a variety of marine mammals, fish, sea turtles, corals, seabirds and invertebrates.

More than 500 fish species have been recorded in the waters surrounding the archipelago, including for instance parrotfish, hogfish, surgeon fish, butterflyfish, squirrelfish, damselfish, fairy basslet, hawkfish, spotted drum, porcupinefish, barracuda, blue chromis, snapper, Creole wrasse, hamlet, French grunt, filefish, goby, wahoo, Atlantic blue marlin, and hundreds of others.

[5]: 82, 85 The rocky Limestone Beach on Water Island is also a popular area for scuba divers and snorkelers with its huge number of tropical fish.

[7]: 134  Coral World's Underwater Observatory on Saint Thomas offers views from a natural coral reef and is a 360-degree underwater observatory with fish species such as trumpetfish, grouper, squirrelfish, barracudas, seahorses, garden eels, cherubfish, moray eels, octopus, parrotfish, palometa and mojarra.