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Site description (2006 baseline):
Site location and context
The Lucayan National Park is located about 25 miles east of Freeport, Grand Bahama. This 40 acre park encompasses the longest known underwater cave system in the world with over six miles of caves and tunnels already charted. Above ground it exibits every vegetative zone found in the Bahamas.
The north side of the highway contain coppice and pinewoods where La Sagra's Flycatchers, Cuban Emeralds, Thick-billed Vireos, Red-legged Thrushes and Greater Antillean Bullfinches can be seen along the trails. Zenaida Doves, Cuban Pewees, Hairy Woodpeckers, Pine and Olive-capped Warblers can be found in the pinewoods. Also, Bahama Swallows frequently feed over the park in summer. The south side of the highway include a boardwalk through the mangrove swamp, in winter one can find Snowy Egrets, Blue-winged Teal, American Coots, Common Moorhens, Soras and Virginia Rails. Green Herons, Red-winged Blackbirds and Clapper Rails are here year round. Take a trail along the beach to find shorebirds and scan Gold Rock Creek offshore for roosting terns.
Non-bird biodiversity: Buffy Flower Bats roost and raise their young in Ben's Cave during June and July.Blind Cave Fish, (Lucifuga spalaeotes) and the Lucayan Oar-foot, (Spelionectes lucayensis) are found deep in the caves.
This small park contains a variety of habitats - mixed scrub, wet coppice, pinewoods, mangrove swamp and beach. Ben's Cave and Burial Ground Cave are entrances to one of the largest underwater cave system in the world. Explorers have found pre-Columbian human skeletons and artifacts in Burial Mound Cave.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
There have been speculation that the eastern part of Grand Bahama may be in line for a Movie Production Complex and a Resort facilities. This large scale development will more than likely create some environmental trauma.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Lucayan National Park (Bahamas). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/lucayan-national-park-iba-bahamas on 23/11/2024.
