Hispaniola
The Arawak/Taíno people travelled often and used hollowed canoes with paddles when on the water for fishing or for migration purposes, and upwards of 100 people could fit into a single canoe. The Taíno came in contact with the Caribs, another indigenous tribe, often. The caribs lived mostly in modern day Puerto Rico and northeast Hispaniola and were known to be hostile towards other tribes. The Arawak/Taíno people had to defend themselves using bow and arrows with poisoned tips and some war clubs. When Columbus landed on Hispaniola, many Taíno leaders wanted protection from the Caribs.
Hispaniolan hutia
Five of the seven species in this genus are known only by skeletal remains, often found in association with human kitchen middens. These five species probably disappeared by the seventeenth century because of excessive hunting by people. "P. aedium" and "P. hylaeum" have been greatly reduced in range and numbers and are threatened by deforestation, hunting, and predation by the introduced small Asian mongoose ("Herpestes auropunctatus"). The human population of Hispaniola is increasing, most of the island's forest cover is being cleared for agriculture, and hutias are killed whenever encountered.