Aldabra is the world's second-largest
coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...
atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gro ...
,
lying south-east of the continent of Africa. It is part of the
Aldabra Group of
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...
s in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
that are part of the
Outer Islands of the
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...
, with a distance of 1,120 km (700 mi) southwest of the capital,
Victoria on
Mahé Island.
History
The name Aldabra, originally Al-Hadra or Al-Khadra (with several variants), was given by
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
seafarers for "the atoll’s harsh, sun-baked environment"; this name was included in the
Portuguese maps of the 16th century.
The islands were already known to the
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ns and
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
, from whom they got their name. They had named the Indian Ocean as Bahr-el zanj. It was visited by
Portuguese navigators in 1511. In the middle of the 18th century, the atoll became a dependency of the
French colony of
Réunion, from where expeditions were made for the capture of the
Aldabra giant tortoises.
As there are no surface freshwater sources on Aldabra, the interests of the explorers (no proof of any European explorer's visit prior to 1742) was only to exploit the species of tortoise, turtle and fish, and not to inhabit the atoll.
In 1810, with
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
,
Réunion, the
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...
and other islands, Aldabra passed into the possession of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
. Réunion was later returned to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, and Mauritius gained possession of Aldabra as well as the rest of the Seychelles. The previous inhabitants were emigrants from the Seychelles.
Admiral
W. J. L. Wharton of the British Navy landed in Aldabra in 1878 to conduct hydrographic surveys of the islands. In 1888, the first settlement was established after the Concession was granted by the Seychelles authorities.
A small settlement was established on
Picard Island facing west near the beach. The intention was to exploit and export the natural resources of the islands. The villagers built a chapel, in the middle of the
badamier trees, using timber and steel; the chapel was considered an essential addition to the plantation houses and office buildings. As Aldabra had no freshwater resources, large rectangular-shaped water storage structures were built adjoining each building. A two-roomed jail was also built in the village, a remnant of which is extant. The exploitation of tortoises for commercial purposes at that time is illustrated by the remnants of a crushing mill at
Picard Island, which was used to crush bones of tortoises, which were also brought in from other islands in the atoll. Efforts made to grow plantation crops of coconuts, cotton, and
sisal failed due to inadequate water sources on the atoll; relics of these plantations are still found on some of the islands. In the late 19th century
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...
s were introduced as a food source for the villagers (about 200) living there.
Ship rats were inadvertently introduced and recorded before 1870, and
house geckos were noted from the 1970s.
Sailors landed on the atoll in the 19th century and captured tortoises as food; in 1842, two ships were reported to have taken 1200 of them. By 1900, the tortoises were nearly extinct, and a crew would often have to hunt for three days to find one.
[Carpin, Sarah,(1998) ''Seychelles'', Odyssey Guides, p.162, The Guidebook Company Ltd., Accessed 22 June 2008]
In the early 1800s, concessions given to individuals almost destroyed the forests and tortoise habitats in many islands in Seychelles; on Aldabra Atoll, in view of its remoteness and rugged topography, only small areas of forests were cleared for agricultural operations (mostly coconut plantations) but the tortoises were intensely captured for meat and trade. However,
James Spurs, who had the concession of the atoll, was responsible initially for saving the tortoises on the atoll when he banned killing them in 1891.
Following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, exploitation of Aldabra for commercial use came to an end and restrictions were even imposed on the number of people who could stay on the islands; this number was fixed at 200 at a time. Introduction of invasive species was banned, faunal species were protected under law, and active research on the ecology and biodiversity of the atoll was undertaken by the
Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...
from the mid-1970s.
Aldabra, along with
Desroches and
Farquhar, was part of the
British Indian Ocean Territory
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 ...
from 1965 until Seychelles' independence in 1976. In the 1960s, as a part of their 'Ocean Island Policy', and to support
East of Suez
East of Suez is used in British military and political discussions in reference to interests beyond the European theatre, and east of the Suez Canal, and may or may not include the Middle East. commitments, the British government considered establishing an
RAF base on the island and invited the United States to help fund the project in return for shared use of the facility and a settlement of 11 million dollars. Simultaneously (mid-1960s), the
British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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