Critically EndangeredGiant Clam
Tridacna gigas
Africa
Réunion is a young volcanic island in the Indian Ocean dominated by two massifs: the Piton des Neiges, extinct, and the Piton de la Fournaise, one of the most active volcanoes on the planet, which erupts every few months. Erosion has carved into the older massif three gigantic cirques with vertical walls — Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate — which together with the remparts form a landscape declared a World Heritage Site. Almost half the island is national park and keeps highland tamarind forests, tropical heathland and lowland rainforest. The island lost much of its original wildlife after colonisation, but it still holds endemic seabirds that nest in the mountains and come down to the sea to feed.
National animal: The red-tailed tropicbird, the island's emblematic bird
Barau's petrel breeds above two thousand metres, in burrows dug into the slopes of the island's interior, and goes down to the sea to feed. Every April, the chicks setting out on their first night flight towards the ocean are disorientated by the lights of the towns and fall to the ground in their thousands. Each year the island organises nights without lights and public collection campaigns to return them to the sea.
Invasive species, above all rats, cats and exotic plants, and light pollution are the main threats to the endemic seabirds. The Manapany day gecko survives along a few kilometres of coast in the south of the island.
The west coast between June and October for humpback whales. The interior of the national park in April during the nights without lights. Bébour-Bélouve at dawn for endemic forest birds.
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Shared ecosystem: Tropical rainforest, Marine / coastal
Shared ecosystem: Tropical rainforest, Marine / coastal
Shared ecosystem: Tropical rainforest, Marine / coastal
Shared ecosystem: Tropical rainforest, Marine / coastal
123 species found
Based on what we already know about Réunion.
