Tag archives for islands
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When I first started this project, I figured my chances of actually finding the ancestral species, let alone the specific source population, were slim to none. But the presence of seven endemic amphibians on two tiny oceanic islands serves as a constant reminder that with enough time, anything is possible!
Finding tadpoles of the Príncipe Giant Treefrog will help identify what types of habitat this endemic species relies on, but after many years of searching for them, finding these elusive tadpoles has also become a matter of personal pride.
As part of a nine-person biodiversity and education expedition to the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe, Young Explorer Rayna Bell is searching for elusive treefrogs at night and spreading knowledge about local biodiversity during the day.
With the recent discovery of offshore oil, São Toméans will soon face the challenge of reconciling rapid economic development with preserving their natural heritage. The problem is that no one knows how many species occupy the islands or how irreplaceable that diversity might be.
Posted by Following tests on smaller islands, the government of Ecuador today begins the second phase of dropping massive amounts of specially designed poison on a Galapagos island thought to be infested with nearly 200 million invasive rats. Introduced centuries ago by pirates, whalers and other visitors, the rodents wreak havoc among the wildlife of Galapagos by preying on eggs and hatchlings of bird and reptile species.
In 1835 Charles Darwin arrived on Floreana Island in the Galapagos, noting in his journal that it had long been frequented, first by buccaneers, latterly by whalers–and then political dissidents exiled from mainland South America. The giant tortoises Darwin saw on Floreana have since been extirpated from the island and the prisoners and pirates exist only in history. But the scenery he described remains much the same, and a tradition of leaving mail in a “post office barrel” for collection and delivery by passing ships has endured for two centuries.
This is the second post in my account of a ten-day exploration of the Galapagos, on board the National Geographic Endeavour. In the first post, I described our arrival on the island of San Cristobal and our first visit to a Galapagos beach. We awoke on the first full day of our expedition to…
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By Tuiloma Neroni Slade There are few places in the world where population growth and urbanization collide more starkly with vulnerability to climate change and disaster risk than in the Pacific region. As increasing numbers of Pacific Islanders move to towns and cities, the region’s long-standing tradition of rural ‘subsistence affluence’ is being eroded,…
By Jesús Gómez-Zurita New Caledonia, an island archipelago east of Australia, has long been recognized as a hotspot for biodiversity, maintaining a rich and mostly endemic flora and fauna, including some emblematic examples of island oddities and living fossils. As is typically the case in the tropics, despite the obvious appeal of New Caledonia for biodiversity studies,…
