Island Ecosystem Quotes

The chance of any species reaching and then surviving on an island as distant as one of the Hawaiian chain is infinitesimal, but despite the extraordinary odds, plants and seeds found their way ashore, carried by the tide or blown by trade winds, inside birds or in their feathers, in the branches of trees and in the jetsam of sunken ships.

I live in a 'sky island,' a unique mountain valley environment where half the animal species of North America can be found.

So you can imagine what happens when a mainland species gets introduced to an island. It would be like introducing Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Rupert Murdoch into the Isle of Wight - the locals wouldn't stand a chance.

I went to an island in the Bahamas full of iguanas. You don't live on the island, obviously, because it's solely populated by iguanas, and it's not allowed.

Islands are known to differ in the food supply available to ground finches, mainly seeds.

The coral reef at Bonaire, one of the alphabet islands in the Caribbean, is so alive and healthy.

I was born in the jungles of Borneo.

There are no poisonous snakes, but the islands are infested with hordes of lizards ranging in size from only an inch to over three feet… It has been necessary to construct the few houses on the island on piers and to take other steps to keep the lizards from overrunning them…is exceptionally clear and blue and abounding in different types of fish. Ocean bathing is considered dangerous as a constant watch must be kept for shark and barracuda

Geographically, Ireland is a medium-sized rural island that is slowly but steadily being consumed by sheep.

In Tasmania, an island the size of Ireland whose primeval forests astonished 19th-century Europeans, an incomprehensible ecological tragedy is being played out.