Socotra: hic sunt dracones!

by Fabio Pupin

The island of Socotra, by far the largest of the homonymous archipelago off the Somali coast, is a resplendent jewel emerging in the Indian Ocean. Tourism has only recently landed on Socotra and altough the interest on this mysterious place is growing up, most of its secrets remains unveiled. Since centuries, travellers have described this island as a paradise on Earth, but today nothing more than few tales and pictures about the magnificent landscapes and bizarre plants have come back home. While bottle trees and other bizarre plants, such as the Dracaena cinnabari (the so-called “dragon blood tree”), are renowned anywhere in the world, other legitimate dragons go unnoticed: the Reptiles. Socotra is the home of some unique species, with 22 endemisms out of 25 species. Geckos are the most represented reptiles in the island: 6 species belong to the Semaphore geckos (genus Pristurus), 6 to the genus Hemidactylus and 2 to the endemic genus Haemodracon; but there are also other lizards, snakes and a chameleon. They are everywhere, from the high mountains of Haggeher to the desert lowland of the south coast, basking on tree branches as on nearly every rock around – and Socotra is a rocky place indeed! -. And even underground: there are, in fact, five worm-like reptiles, suited to a completely ctonian life. Although the herpetofauna of the island is considered to be relatively well known by scientists, new species have been described up to a few years ago and still most aspects of their life-history remain unknown. Thus, it’s not surprising that there are few images of these reptiles. Except maybe the Egyptian Vulture and some other birds, most of the animals of Socotra still wait to be celebrated. In 2007 and 2008 an Italian team of expert herpetologists started to collect ecological data on the reptile species (amphibians are completely absent from the Socotra archipelago), in the ongoing framework of the “Socotra Conservation and Development Project” (SCDP), with the aim of improving the sustainable development and conservation of the biodiversity of the island. I had the great opportunity to join the team and to dedicate my attention to the most ignored beauties of the island. The pictures you’ll see here are a brief selection of the many I collected during these field-trips (for an in-depth view of my pictures of Socotra click HERE).