Guess where my dad and I are going
Jun. 9th, 2005 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanHint: It doesn't seem like it will be a nature trip, really.
No indigenous land vertebrates, prior to human arrival, have been identified, though there has been discussion about how at least one of three species of lizard on the island got there. Before human occupation, sea birds nested not just on offshore islets but on the main island itself, but these numbers dwindled after the first settlers arrived. (In fact, at one time the island was one of the richest seabird islands in the world, with 25 species — 14 of which are now extinct.) Legends speak of the birds being driven from place to place on the island, eventually settling on the islets about a mile off the southwest corner of the island. In the 1930s, researchers on the Franco-Belgian Expedition collected evidence for the existence of the sooty tern, petrels, grey terns, noddy terns, boobies, tropicbirds, and frigate birds — but, today, even migratory sea birds are relatively rare on tHe island and its environs. (They are abundant, incidentally, on the uninhabited Henderson Island relatively nearby.)
Sea mammals and turtles do not seem to have been abundant after the arrival of human settlers, however, and only 164 species of fish have been recorded on the island (the low numbers — Hawai’i, by contrast, has 450 species or more; Fiji has over 1,000 — are probably attributable to the lack of coral reef).
As far as less pleasant beasties are concerned, spiders, insects (like crickets and cockroaches), worms, snails, and scorpions are said to have been introduced — but no snakes!
Human introductions include four land birds — the chimango, the tinamou, the house sparrow, and the common finch — not counting the chicken, which was brought with the first settlers. They also brought with them the Polynesian rat, which was later ousted by the European rat — and, though pigs and dogs were common elsewhere in Polynesia, either they weren’t brought with the first settlers or didn’t survive the journey, for no osteological evidence for their existence on the island has turned up. Rabbits were introduced in 1866 but were eaten to extinction (probably the only place in the world where that has occurred!). Also in 1866 sheep, pigs, horses, goats, and cattle were introduced and survive to this day in fluctuating numbers (goats being among the least prevalent).
(don't give it away if you already know!)
For cheaters, and people who care about intellectual property, the text originates here.
EDIT- some of the comments give pretty large hints
No indigenous land vertebrates, prior to human arrival, have been identified, though there has been discussion about how at least one of three species of lizard on the island got there. Before human occupation, sea birds nested not just on offshore islets but on the main island itself, but these numbers dwindled after the first settlers arrived. (In fact, at one time the island was one of the richest seabird islands in the world, with 25 species — 14 of which are now extinct.) Legends speak of the birds being driven from place to place on the island, eventually settling on the islets about a mile off the southwest corner of the island. In the 1930s, researchers on the Franco-Belgian Expedition collected evidence for the existence of the sooty tern, petrels, grey terns, noddy terns, boobies, tropicbirds, and frigate birds — but, today, even migratory sea birds are relatively rare on tHe island and its environs. (They are abundant, incidentally, on the uninhabited Henderson Island relatively nearby.)
Sea mammals and turtles do not seem to have been abundant after the arrival of human settlers, however, and only 164 species of fish have been recorded on the island (the low numbers — Hawai’i, by contrast, has 450 species or more; Fiji has over 1,000 — are probably attributable to the lack of coral reef).
As far as less pleasant beasties are concerned, spiders, insects (like crickets and cockroaches), worms, snails, and scorpions are said to have been introduced — but no snakes!
Human introductions include four land birds — the chimango, the tinamou, the house sparrow, and the common finch — not counting the chicken, which was brought with the first settlers. They also brought with them the Polynesian rat, which was later ousted by the European rat — and, though pigs and dogs were common elsewhere in Polynesia, either they weren’t brought with the first settlers or didn’t survive the journey, for no osteological evidence for their existence on the island has turned up. Rabbits were introduced in 1866 but were eaten to extinction (probably the only place in the world where that has occurred!). Also in 1866 sheep, pigs, horses, goats, and cattle were introduced and survive to this day in fluctuating numbers (goats being among the least prevalent).
(don't give it away if you already know!)
For cheaters, and people who care about intellectual property, the text originates here.
EDIT- some of the comments give pretty large hints
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:03 pm (UTC)I kept thinking...gosh it sounds like...no, it couldn't be. But it really does seem like a description of....but no, surely not.
You know, I'm very short, and would fit into most pieces of luggage. I don't eat much. Really, you'd never know that I was around.
And I have a miniature you-know-what that I use as a bookend on the shelf of books about you-know-where.
--sob--
no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:18 pm (UTC)I'm reading Rapanui: Tradition and Survival on [you know where] by McCall right now, and I've ordered The Complete Guide to [you know where] by McLaughlin, and Speak Rapanui! by Rapahango, and I'm thinking about (but worried about going overboard) An Uncommon Guide to [you know where] by Lee. Have you read any of these? Any recommendations?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 12:46 am (UTC)Big Secret is Over.
Date: 2005-06-10 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 11:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:48 pm (UTC)my folks went there last year and found it very impressive.
you know, relatively speaking, the Galapagos aren't THAT far from there...
no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 10:39 pm (UTC)Probably the closest thing to a pilgrimage I'll ever do.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-13 12:07 am (UTC)yep, I pretty much think of it as a temple.
I cheated
Date: 2005-06-10 02:20 am (UTC)Re: I cheated
Date: 2005-06-10 04:57 pm (UTC)All I can think of is...
Date: 2005-06-10 11:24 pm (UTC)Is Easter Island the place where those Hobbit people were discovered?
-Turtle
Re: All I can think of is...
Date: 2005-06-10 11:38 pm (UTC)Yes, Hobbit people.
Date: 2005-06-11 01:11 pm (UTC)Lookie here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1027_041027_homo_floresiensis.html
Yayn for short people!
-Turtle
Thank goodness for Tolkein
Date: 2005-06-14 04:15 pm (UTC)