La Matoutou Falaise, patrimoine naturel et culturel à préserver
Abstract
The tree-dwelling tarantula Caribena versicolor (local name Matoutou Falaise) is an appropriate topic to approach considerations on the patrimonial heritages in our island societies. Indeed, this spider allows the development of transversal links between the natural heritage conception, as this species is endemic of the fauna from Martinique, and the cultural heritage conception as it also belongs to the symbols of the island identity. It is therefore under this double consideration that its preservation is of major concern, the species being particularly valued by the international trade of wild species while its distribution has been severely reduced since the beginnings of the territory exploitation. For that matter, it is already protected by a prefectural order since November 1993, but it doesn’t seem to affect the illegal international trade which still continues.This framework led to studies in the aim to bring new arguments for a better preservation at the national and international level, the former being effective since the 23rd of September 2017. Among the fields approached, population structure and dynamics by matricial modeling, today of classical use in this type of study, has allowed to notice that the northern populations are in quite a healthy state, but fragile and precarious.
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