Lobos (, ) is a small island of the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

(

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) located just north of the island of

Fuerteventura Fuerteventura () is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, geographically part of Macaronesia, and politically part of Spain. It is located away from the coast of North Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO i ...

. It belongs to the municipality of La Oliva on the island of Fuerteventura. It has an area of . It has been a nature reserve (''Parque Natural del Islote de Lobos'') since 1982. The island is accessible to tourists via a short

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

ride from Corralejo, in the north of Fuerteventura. It has day facilities and weekend homes of local fishermen. It offers hiking and snorkelling tours. At the northeastern end of the island is the Punta Martiño Lighthouse, the

lighthouse keeper A lighthouse keeper or lightkeeper is a person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Lighthouse keepers were sometimes referred to as ...

and his family were the last permanent inhabitants of Lobos, until the light was automated in the 1960s. In 1405, Lobos Island served as resupply base for

Jean de Béthencourt Jean de Béthencourt (; 1362–1425) was a French explorer who in 1402 led an expedition to the Canary Islands, landing first on the north side of Lanzarote. From there he conquered for Castile the islands of Fuerteventura (1405) and El H ...

's conquest of Fuerteventura.

Origin of name

Lobos Island (Wolves Island) was named for the large number of sea wolves, also called monk seals, that once lived there. The monk seals were the island's only inhabitants when it was discovered by the Spanish conquerors of the Canaries

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

in the fifteenth century, but with the arrival of humans, these animals were hunted on a massive scale by sailors and fishermen who saw them as a source of food, fat and skin. As a result of this hunting, the species eventually became extinct on the island and its presence now is only occasional.

History

Recent archaeological findings have concluded that

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

established a (possibly seasonal) settlement in the island, related with the obtention of purple dye. In 1405 Lobos Island served as resupply base for

´s conquest of Fuerteventura. Until 1968 the only inhabitants of the island were the lighthouse keeper and his family, who had the responsibility for operating the Faro de Lobos lighthouse located at Punta Martiño at the northern tip of the island, a prominent local landmark (his name was Antonito; a school in the town of Corralejo was named after him). The island was one of the first natural areas of the Canary Islands to be designated as a natural park in 1982. Later the island was also designated an area of special protection for birds, and many marine species of migratory birds inhabit the island. Los lobos

Geography

Lobos Island, like the rest of the

, is a volcanic island. Its age is estimated between 6,000 and 8,000 years. The highest point is on the island's volcanic

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

, Montaña La Caldera,

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. The island includes a small lake, but the low rainfall creates an arid landscape.

Fauna and flora

Despite being a desert and a volcanic landscape, Lobos Island has a large number of natural habitats. Because of its great ecological diversity the site has been designated as a protected zone, the ''Parque Natural del Islote de Lobos''. There are over 130 plant species, including the siempreviva (''

Limonium ''Limonium'' is a genus of about 600 flowering plant species. Members are also known as sea-lavender, statice, caspia or marsh-rosemary. Despite their common names, species are not related to the lavenders or to rosemary. They are instead in Plu ...

ovalifolium''), which is endemic to the island, and the sea uvilla ('' Zygophyllum fontanesii'') which is very attractive because of its shape and color. Likewise, birds are an important feature of the island: it has a great variety of seabirds that usually nest on cliffs and rocks. Breeding seabirds include Cory's and little shearwaters, European and band-rumped storm petrels, and Kentish plovers are resident. The island has been declared a special protection area (SPA) for birds, as well as being recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

. In addition to birds a great diversity of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

can be spotted in its waters. Of these, abound

barracuda A barracuda is a large, predatory, ray-finned, saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldw ...

hammerhead shark The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, named for the unusual and distinctive form of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a Hammerhead shark#Cephalofoil, cephalofoil (a T-shape or " ...

and

bream Bream (, ) are species of freshwater fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Ballerus'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', '' Lepomis'', '' Gymnocranius'', ...

Tourism

The island is a popular location for day trips for tourists visiting from Fuerteventura who have an interest in flora, fauna and geology. Regular boat services ferry passengers from Corralejo harbour during daylight hours. To protect the natural landscape from human impact, access is limited to restricted areas and to a series of walking trails, marked by directional signs to protect the conservation areas. The paths take visitors from the boat jetty through a varied landscape, including to the lighthouse at Punto Martino and to the top of the caldera. There is a small, sheltered sea lagoon, Playa de la Concha, with a sandy beach for bathing. Visitors, before 2007, could ask for authorisation from

local government's environment office to camp on the island, for a maximum of three nights, in one permitted location known as "El carpintero". Since 2007 it is prohibited to camp on the island.

Gallery

File:Light house on a cliff at Isla de Lobos.jpg, Punta Martiño Lighthouse File:Lobos.JPG, Lobos Island buildings File:Montana de la Caldera on Isla de Lobos near Fuerteventura in Canary Islands.jpg, Montaña La Caldera File:Lobos Island lagoon.jpg, Lobos Island's small lagoon, Playa de la Concha File:Lobos_Island_interior.jpg, Lobos Island interior File:Lobos_Island_interior_detail.jpg, Lobos Island interior detail File:Lobos_Island_desertification.jpg, Lobos Island typical soil File:Lobos_Island_Playa_de_la_Concha.jpg, Lobos Island's Playa de la Concha, looking to Punta Saladero

References

*R. Pott, J. Hüppe, W. Wildpret de la Torre, ''Die Kanarischen Inseln. Natur- und Kulturlandschaften'', Ulmer Eugen Verlag, 2003,
Viajes a vela en las Islas Canarias, España ~ turismo vela: Isla de Lobos
Accessed on October 3, 2010

Accessed on October 3, 2010

External links

* {{coord, 28.748, -13.822, type:isle, display=title Islands of the Canary Islands Uninhabited islands of Spain Important Bird Areas of the Canary Islands