>> ANA LUZ PORZECANSKI: Islands are generally a good place to study biodiversity and evolution.
In a way, they’re like natural experiments.
They have sharp boundaries and they’re separated, sometimes for long periods of time.
And so, evolution becomes more dramatic.
This museum is about understanding life on Earth – why it is so diverse, how we can
protect it and sustain it for the future.
And so, if you want to understand how life evolved in the Caribbean
Cuba is central to that puzzle.
[MUSIC]
>>PORZECANSKI: So, all eyes are on Cuba right now, as it’s changing at an accelerated pace.
I think it’s the perfect time to engage more deeply with Cuba, to learn and understand
better its nature and culture.
>>CHRIS RAXWORTHY: ¡Cuba! is a new Museum exhibition, which will be opening this fall.
People are rediscovering Cuba and connecting with it.
They’re also very curious about it.
It’s a chance with this exhibition where we can bring people up to speed on the developments
in Cuba, and about its environmental richness.
>>PORZECANSKI: Cuba is not just one island, but actually an archipelago of over 4,000 islands and keys.
It includes virtually every habitat and ecosystem found in the whole Caribbean – mountains,
freshwater ecosystems like wetlands, underground caves, and coral reefs, such as the one being
recreated behind me.
>>RAXWORTHY: Islands are really fun because it’s almost like evolution goes crazy there.
For the lucky animals that get to islands,
they often find what we describe as empty niches.
They often have opportunities to evolve and fill these empty holes within the communities.
And in some cases, that means that you have to shift your size pretty dramatically.
Cuba has things like this giant extinct owl.
It was a top predator, one of the top predators in Cuba.
So, gigantism is a feature of islands.
But also, oddly enough, you get exactly the opposite, which is miniaturization.
Cuba, for example, has the smallest bird in the world — the bee hummingbird —
and the second smallest frog in the world.
>>PORZECANSKI: Cuba has a lot of animals and plants that are found nowhere else.
Over half of the plants,
95 percent of amphibians.
And with the reptiles, about 80 percent you won’t find anywhere else.
>>RAXWORTHY: So, we’re going to be featuring live animals in the exhibition, and one of them will be
the knight anole, which is the largest anole species in Cuba.
The color change is really amazing on these.
>>PORZECANSKI: Cuba’s nature has been protected by a combination of historical circumstance,
but also because Cubans themselves have been very committed to protecting their biodiversity.
>>RAXWORTHY: Gardens of the Queen are this magical reef system, which is now protected.
Reefs are very different to the terrestrial environment.
We don’t see in Cuba anything like the endemism that we see on the land.
Most of the species in the marine environment are shared with other island nations
in the Caribbean.
The fact that Cuba is so large, and its reef systems have been kept in such good condition
offers a tremendous conservation opportunity for the region.
>>PORZECANSKI: The Museum launched an expedition to Cuba in October 2015.
This was a remarkable expedition.
It brought together scientists and experts from the American Museum of Natural History,
the National Museum of Natural History in Cuba, and Humboldt National Park.
People sometimes are surprised to find out that the Museum has been working in Cuba for
over a century, and pretty steadily.
And that’s because science transcends politics.
Science is really about continuing to improve our understanding of the world, and our hope
is that visitors will leave this exhibition with a more nuanced, deeper understanding
of Cuba and a critical curiosity that will spark them to go beyond the headlines
and learn more about it.