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This book provides a compact identification guide to the animals and plants of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago and Gough Island, with more than 400 colour photographs.
These remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean lie roughly midway between the southern tip of Africa and South America. As is typical of isolated, oceanic islands, the fauna and flora are not especially rich, but they are characterised by large numbers of species found nowhere else on earth. Among these are seven species of land birds, including the smallest flightless bird in the world, and four species of seabird. The islands also are home to more than 40 endemic plants and 100 invertebrates. The shallow-water marine life around the islands exhibits high levels of endemism in at least some groups, such as bivalves and seaweeds.
The Tristan and Gough group include some of the least disturbed temperate island ecosystems in the world, but they are under threat, mainly from introduced species of both animals and plants. The small community on Tristan is committed to conserve its precious natural heritage, and has already set aside more than 40% of the islands' limited land area as nature reserves. Proceeds from the sale of this guide will go directly to fund conservation management at the islands.
