On these islands, many species have no other home

Socotra is located northwest of the Indian Ocean, near the Gulf of Aden. The archipelago looks small on a map. For some species, however, it represents all their natural distribution: they live there without spontaneously existing in another region of the world.

This situation is called endemism. In its file, UNESCO indicates that 307 of the 825 plant species then identified are endemic, or about 37%. It also describes a very high endemism among reptiles and land snails. These proportions concern specific groups and a given inventory, not every animal sighted on the islands.

This concentration transforms the meaning of a local disappearance. For a widely distributed species, other populations may exist elsewhere. For a species limited to the archipelago, losing its habitat can mean its entire future. The place seems small seen from the sky; seen from these organisms, there is no lack of any part of the world. This is precisely why its singularities matter so much.