10 Islands With Interesting Animal Populations

Seal Island in False Bay is the only venue in the world that offers seal, seal and more seal. Located near Cape Town in South Africa, the island is a teeny weeny rocky elongated landmass and a home to thousands of Cape fur seals and some seabirds too.

The Island has no beaches and vegetation so it’s a tough land especially when the sea acts badly. It’s desolate and off-limits to tourists, however, the radio antennae build during World War II is a proof that humans did spend a fraction of time on the Island.

Seal hunters are strongly discouraged to visit the island and they are not allowed to kill the seals for their pet, but that doesn’t mean seals here don’t have predators. During shark season, great white sharks go shopping and that’s when the action happens.

Though the island itself doesn’t permit the travelers, frequent visitors to ocean safaris can witness the playful Cape fur seals basking in the land.

Assateague Island is a small barrier Island located close to Ocean City Maryland and Chincoteague Island, Virginia. More than 300 wild ponies live in Assateague Island wandering the beaches, salt marshes, and inland pine forests.

Horses in Assateague Islands are riven in two herds, one on the Maryland side whereas the other is on Virginia side. They are tough and strong feral animals that survive the harsh weather condition, massive mosquitoes, and scorching heat.

Although it’s unknown how these animals came into existence, some local lore explains that these horses survived the shipwreck off the Virginia coast. While the others believe that they were brought to the island by mainland owners in the late 17th century to escape the laws and taxation of livestock.

Feeding and stroking Assateague horses are prohibited as they can suffer from the human diet. Those who come to beg food on the road are often crashed and killed by vehicles.

Ever heard cats take over an island. Sounds impossible but Tonawanda island in the mid of the Niagara River in New York is a serious shelter for hundreds of cats. At this 85-acre island, massive numbers of moggies roam freely and that’s boiling and multiplying every single day.

Cats in Tonawanda are mostly unsolicited and forgotten pets that were dropped there to fend for themselves, people are simply speckled dropping and dumping their pets off on the island and currently, it’s been a serious issue for the travelers there. The hide the whole day and come out from their shelter at night.

These cats make a mess out of everything and they even climb the boat that is docked in the marina. They make foul odors which give the island an unpleasant atmosphere. But now islander Danielle Coogan has launched an operation to fix the problem of the cat on the island. The young kittens are put up for adoption and the adult ones are returned back to the island.

Okunoshima of Japan is a home of paradise for cute little bunnies. Located in an east sea of Japan, this small island is filled with hundreds of friendly rabbits that rove the paths, forest and sometimes even hunt the visitors.

Although the country never planned to use it as the tourist destination, flocks of rabbit lover visit island of Okunoshima to witness these adorable rabbits. The tourism is having negative consequences though because the visitors feed these rabbits due to which they are increasing massively which is too much for the island.

Exactly how these feral fluff balls moved in this island is arguable, however, people described that the rabbits who were the subject of the test for the chemical factory escaped when the factory was closed. While the other stories suggest that they were set free by eight young kids in 1971 but that’s not confirmed yet.

Henderson Island formerly called Elizabeth Island is a distant coral island in the South Pacific Ocean. The island is not a habitat for humans but there exist a plenty of wildlife including birds and flowering plants that are nowhere in the world. Rats are the issue though on this island as they eat chicks of rare birds.

Polynesians rats were brought to the island by the sailors about 800 years ago which appears to be a bad call now. The island was terribly suffering from rat issue after which scrupulous planning was made to eradicate all the rats.

The 80 tons of toothsome cereal pellets with the potent dose of poison was dropped on the island which seemed to be working in the beginning as the number dropped to less than 10. However, they didn’t get rid of all and today it’s overrun by the rats again, the same number as it was before poisoning.

Ano Nuevo Island is a 9-acre small island that lies on the coast of Northern California, between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. This fairly young island was once connected to California’s northern coast, later it was abandoned due to the continuous level of rising water that build a channel between the mainland and the island after which it was used as a Coast Guard light station until 1948.

The island has been taken up by number of animals including seagulls, Steller’s sea lions, and northern elephant seals. And that’s because it has been off-limits to visitors except for the researchers. The island and its opposing shore is a favorite breeding site for elephant seals so dynamically that they pulled their family back from extinction.

The largest natural island in the Lake Superior, Isle Royale is a national park and biosphere reserve that is made by minor islands and waters. No species is native to Isle Royal however, you can see one or two wolves and a massive moose on this island.

Scientists have studied and stated that the relationship between the wolf and moose id the longest running predator-prey. While the number of moose is thriving to almost 1600, the wolves that prey these animals have dwindled to just two. The two wolves in Isle Royale is actually a father-daughter duo, half-siblings.

How Moose and wolves came to the Isle Royale is debated. However, theory suggests that while Moose swam 14 miles from the coast to the island, the wolves came in 1949 by crossing an ice bridge of Ontario.

Nearly two million travelers visit Cayman Island each year and for most of them, visiting the Caribbean is all about iguana sightings. In the island, the sizeable green iguana is the bellicose lizard that threatens the native rock iguana.

Originally from Central and South America, the island is a home to green iguana since the 1980s; when they were first brought as a pet and let off go. Ultimately, they multiplied their number by wild which has now been problematic for the native rock iguana and the whole eco-system.

This large green lizard has been causing damage to agricultural farms and garden and competing with the native species for the food sources. To gain control over the alarming rate of the green iguana, the Department of Environment has been looking for ways to drop the numbers.

Located in the Irish Sea off the coast of the north county Dublin in Ireland, Lambay Island is a private island that has an ongoing love affair with the pristine beach, steep cliffs and now Wallabies. A native of Australia and New Guinea, there are only a few reasons you’d expect to find the Wallabies on Irish coasts. They can easily adapt to the cold climate because of the thick fur.

But Ireland alone is not having a wide population of wallabies-in fact, they have settled on the Isle of Man and Inchconnachan in Scotland.These Wallabies were introduced to the island by Baring family who owns the Lambay Island.

Since 1950s the Barings have been raising dozens of red-necked wallabies on the island. Out of different species on the island like lizards and tortoise, Wallabies was the only species who could adapt and survive on the island. Since they keep on hiding, the number of wallabies on this island is exactly unknown but it is estimated that they are in between 30 to 50.

Kickstart a tour to Christmas Island to witness the Christmas Island Red Crabs. Although it sounds similar to the Disney land or so, Christmas Island situated in the Indian Ocean, south of Sumatra and Java is widely famous for the red crustaceans. The island is entirely painted red by the baby crabs as if it’s a seething carpet on the land.

The island is a home to tens of millions of red crabs so it can be observed almost everywhere. A native of the Christmas Island, red crabs can be seen nowhere in the world. These abundant numbers of crabs grow on by feeding leaves and fruits and they mostly live in the rainforest. In the dry season, they come out and dig holes for shaping and maintaining the body moisture.

At the early wet season, adult red crabs migrate from forest to the coast to breed and spawn. Males lead the first wave and females later follow them.