Guadalupe Island

Guadalupe (Spanish: Isla Guadalupe ) is a volcanic island that lies about 240 kilometers west of Mexico's Baja California. The island belongs to the municipality of Ensenada of the state of Baja California.

Population

The only inhabited village with 15 inhabitants ( as of 2008) is Campo Oeste on the west coast. Previously, there was also on the east coast of the island, a small fishing village, Campo Este, but this settlement is now derelict. In the south there is a weather station, Campamento Sur.

Geography

The island has a length of about 40 km and a width of up to 9.5 km. The highest elevation of the 244 km ² island is the 1,298 meter high Mount Augusta. Around the island protrude some smaller rocks from the sea.

Flora and Fauna

Fauna

Some of the typical species of this island also visit the nearby near California's Channel Islands. Characteristic of Guadalupe is the large seal colonies. The native species are on the coasts of the Northern elephant seal and the endemic Guadalupe fur seal. Native birds include the Guadaloupe Rock Wren ( Salpinctes obsoletus guadalupensis ) and a subspecies of the house Dupe (Carpodacus mexicanus amplus ), the Guadalupe Ruby Kinglet (Regulus calendula obscurus ) is probably already extinct. Also extinct are the Guadalupe Caracara and the Guadalupe Storm-Petrel ( a petrels - type ) and the local subspecies of bush wren ( Thryomanes bewickii brevicauda ), Flicker ( Colaptes cafer rufipileus ) and the reason Bunting ( Pipilo maculatus consobrinus ). A major problem for the bird life make this poaching domestic cats dar.

Flora

Also among the plants there are numerous endemic species such as the Guadalupe cypress and the Guadalupe Palm ( Brahea edulis). The flora of the island was heavily damaged by goats. They had introduced Russian whalers in the early 19th century. At times, there were over a thousand goats, abfraßen all plants with more than a few inches of height. Only after the Mexican government had evacuated the last goat in June 2005, a biosphere reserve could be established.