In 2017, Antigua and Barbuda removed over 6,000 rats and starving goats from Redonda; by 2019, vegetation rose over 20-fold and ground lizards eightfold

For years, Redonda looked less like a Caribbean paradise and more like a barren volcanic outcrop. Its steep cliffs and rocky surface were stripped of vegetation, while invasive goats and thousands of black rats consumed or destroyed much of the island’s fragile wildlife.