Gasparillo Island
island in Trinidad and Tobago

Gasparillo is a small island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is one of the Bocas Islands (also referred to as Dragons' Teeth), which lie in the Bocas del Dragón (Spanish for Dragon's Mouths) between the main island of Trinidad and Venezuela. The island is currently uninhabited.
Characteristics
Gasparillo is actually made up of two islands separated by several metres of rocks. However the second island is very small and is not independently named. The main island a little over 200 metres in length but is very narrow, less than 50 metres at its widest point, approximately 8,000 m2 in area. It is, as with most islands around the Paria Peninsular, covered with dry forest vegetation, and composed of a limestone bedrock with caves. Several species of birds nest at the island, including the short-tailed swift that nest on the eastern side of the island.
History
The Gasparillo name has been derived because of its small size relative to the much larger Gaspar Grande Island, located just to the south of it. It has also been called Scorpion Island and Centipede Island due to the nature of its fauna.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gasparillo Island” is island in Trinidad and Tobago. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gasparillo, Island and island, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “island in Trinidad and Tobago” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3392826. Authority coordinates are 10.676, -61.653. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gasparillo Island” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.