Mohotani (sometimes spelt ''Moho Tani''; also called ''Molopu'' or ''Motane'') is an uninhabited island southeast of Hiva Oa and east of Tahuata in the southern

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in th ...

. It has an area of 15 km². Much of the island's sparse vegetation has been destroyed by feral

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 and

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

, to the extent that following its rare rains, the sea around it is stained red from

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

. Early reports describes the island as fertile, with forest and fields. When Thor Heyerdahl visited the island in 1938, there were only a few goats and remains of deserted huts and villages. Mohotani is administratively part of the commune (municipality) of

Hiva-Oa Hiva-Oa is a commune in France, commune of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The commune is in the French Polynesia#Administrative divisions, administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands.

, itself in the

administrative subdivision Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

of the

. It is reported that at one time the island was inhabited by a clan called the “Moi a Tiu”, but that population has long since been wiped out by disease and war, the few survivors having departed for Hiva ʻOa. In pre-European times, the island was considered part of the territory of the province of Pepane. In 1992, the island and its surrounding smaller islands (including

Terihi Terihi is a small, uninhabited, rocky island in the Marquesas Islands, less than southeast from Mohotani. It has an area of and a coastline of . In 1992, the island became officially protected by its inclusion in the Motane Nature Reserve. S ...

) were officially

protected Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...

by the declaration of the

Motane Nature Reserve The Motane One Reserve is a nature reserve containing the whole of the islands of Moho Tani and Terihi, as well as the surrounding rocks, in the southern Marquesas Islands. It was declared in 1992, as the first step toward protecting the ecosyst ...

History

Before the arrival of westerners, Moho Tani was inhabited by the Moi a Tiu

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

. It was the smallest inhabited island in the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

. Decimated by fighting and disease brought by foreign sailors, the few survivors eventually abandoned the island and headed for Hiva Oa. Mohotane is uninhabited today, but there is clear archaeological evidence to suggest a permanent Polynesian settlement.

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

anthropologist Ralph Linton (1893-1953) located the remains of a settlement.

Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000&nb ...

found several stone house platforms (paepae) in the arid east of the island during a brief foray in 1938. The island was inhabited by a single clan called "Moi-Atiu," a collateral line of a tribe from Hiva Oa. Mohotane was discovered in 1595 by the Spanish navigator

Álvaro de Mendaña Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warrior ...

de Neyra on his second voyage to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. He did not set foot on the island, but named it "San Pedro" in honor of Saint Simon Peter and in reference to the name of its captain, Pedro Fernández de Quirós. Mendana described it as an island "covered with much forest" and could see no signs of inhabitants.

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

, during his second voyage to the Pacific, passed through the strait between the islands of Hiva Oa and Mohotane on April 7, 1774, but without entering Mohotane. He describes the island as follows. In the cartographic sketch of William Wales, astronomer aboard the Resolution, Mohotane is marked with the name "Onateayo", probably the name given to it by the inhabitants of the island of Hiva Oa. In 1992, it was declared "Motane Island

Nature Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

" (''réserve naturelle de l'île de Motane'') to protect its endangered ecosystem. The reserve extends to Terihi islet, which is home to colonies of seabirds such as gannets, terns and frigate birds.

Geography

Moho Tani is located 17 km south and southeast of Hiva Oa, 21 km east of Tahuata and 47 km north of Fatu Iva. With an area of 15 km², it forms an open crescent to the east, about 8 km long from north to south and 2 km wide at most from east to west. MohoTani vue depuis HivaOa 20061110

It is a high island, with its highest elevation (520 meters) in the south, and its overall shape resembles the back of a whale.

Terihi

At 300 meters to the southeast is Terihi, a rocky islet of 0.150 km² with a very steep coastline and a total perimeter of 3.4 kilometers, which is part of the same volcanic complex. It rises 245 meters above sea level. The flora is sparse and consists mainly of the hardy grass Eragrostis xerophila and the slow-growing nightshade

Nicotiana ''Nicotiana'' () is a genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs in the Family (biology), family Solanaceae, that is Native plant, indigenous to the Americas, Australia, Southwestern Africa and the South Pacific. Various ''Nicotiana'' species, common ...

fragrans var Fatuhivensis, a species endemic to Fatu Hiva and Moho Tani.

Geology

Moho Tani corresponds to the west-southwestern part of a collapsed caldera, which belonged to a much larger

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

, about ten kilometers in diameter. This volcano was born from the presence of a hot spot in this part of the world, several million years ago. The island was formed in two phases, the most recent of which dates from about 2.2 million years ago. It is composed mainly of basalt.

Flora and fauna

Moho tani has been protected since 1971 (French Polynesia Sites Commission, Order No. 2559 of July 28, 1971). Hunting is regulated and requires a permit, but the remote

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 island ...

is also visited without a permit. In addition, trees are illegally cut down to obtain wood for the souvenir industry. Effective management and monitoring of the protected area is still lacking. Sheep introduced by French settlers from Hiva Oa in the second half of the

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...

have run rampant and cause erosion by grazing low vegetation.

Flora

Mohotane can be divided into three vegetation zones: The east is arid over a wide swath, the north has little

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic character ...

, and the west center of the island is covered by dense

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

that remains largely pristine. 5 km above Terihi

The entire east is arid due to animal browsing, and vegetation cover is sparse. In favorable locations, Nicotiana fragrans var. fatuhivensis, which belongs to the

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

plants and is endemic to Fatu Hiva and Mohotane, purslane ( Portulaca oleracea), and the herbs Eragrostis xerophila and

Brachiaria ''Brachiaria'', or signalgrass, is a genus of plants in the grass family native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, Australia, southern Europe, the Americas, and various islands.Pisonia grandis, Premna tahitensis and

Morinda citrifolia ''Morinda citrifolia'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. Its native range extends across Southeast Asia and Australasia, and was spread across the Pacific by Polynesian sailors. The species is now cultivated throughout th ...

also grow in the few places that are not accessible to animals. The central plateau, in the west, is covered by a dense forest area that covers about a quarter of the island. It consists of giant Pisonia grandis, which not infrequently reach a height of 30 to 40 meters. Other common trees are

Cordia subcordata ''Cordia subcordata'' is a species of flowering tree in the borage family, Boraginaceae, that occurs in eastern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, northern Australia and the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii). The plant is known by a variety o ...

, Thespesia populnea,

Hibiscus tiliaceus ''Hibiscus tiliaceus'', commonly known as the sea hibiscus or coast cottonwood, is a species of flowering tree in the mallow family, Malvaceae, with a pantropical distribution along coastlines. It has also been introduced to Florida and New Zea ...

, Pandanus tectorius, Ficus marcuesensis,

Casuarina equisetifolia ''Casuarina equisetifolia'', common names ''Coastal She-oak'' or ''Horsetail She-oak'' (sometimes referred to as the Australian pine tree or whistling pine tree outside Australia), is a she-oak species of the genus ''Casuarina''. The native ...

, and occasional coconut trees among them.

Fauna

There are only two species of mammals, neither of which is indigenous: the Pacific rat, probably introduced by Polynesians as a food animal, and sheep, which Europeans settled in the 19th century. Ten species of seabirds and seven species of land birds, two of which are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

, have been observed in Mohotane: Frigatebirds nest in the large pisonias. Other seabirds found at Mohotane and Terihi include noddi (Anous stolidus), sooty tern (Sterna fuscata) and fairy tern (Gygis alba). Among the landbirds, the Marquesas monarch, in the Pomarea mendozae montanensis variation, and Acrocephalus caffer consobrinus, a subspecies of the long-billed warbler, are endemic. Other rare and threatened species include the Marquesas warbler ( Acrocephalus mendanae), the Marquesas salangana (Aerodramus ocistus), and the Petit-Thouars fruit pigeon ( Ptilinopus dupetithouarsii).

References

Resources

*Christian, F.W. ''Eastern Pacific Lands, Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands''. London, 1910. *Heyerdahl, Thor: Fatuhiva Islands of the Marquesas Islands Uninhabited islands of French Polynesia Former populated places in Oceania {{FrenchPolynesia-geo-stub