Cabildo de Tenerife

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Nature and landscapes

Nature and landscapes

Their volcanic origins, the fact that they are an archipelago, their latitude close to the Equator, and the passage of the trade winds all mean that the Canary Islands, and Tenerife with them, enjoy some truly unique conditions, in which natural characteristics and landscapes that are not found anywhere else on the planet have been able to develop, greatly adding to the appeal of the islands, for tourists and inhabitants alike.

Their isolation from the continental territories has generated, over thousands of years, numerous animal and vegetable endemisms, along with a climate that is famous for its mildness and its lack of abrupt temperature changes and weather conditions, resulting in the Canary Islands becoming known as the Islands of Eternal Spring and the Gardens of the Hesperides.

These unique characteristics have, since the 18th century, made Tenerife a magnet to nature lovers, geographers, geologists and researchers from all over the world... Historical naturalists such as Alexander Von Humboldt made Tenerife an essential stopover in their scientific expeditions.

After finding out about the work carried out on the Island by the German scientist, Charles Darwin, the father of the Theory of Evolution, decided to visit Tenerife himself, although he was never able to land here. As Darwin tells us in his own words: "we were just preparing to drop our anchor within half a mile of Santa Cruz when a boat came alongside bringing with it our death-warrant. The consul declared we must perform a rigorous quarantine of twelve days". The port authorities' fear that the crew of the scientist's ship, the "Beagle", might be carrying cholera, prevented them from disembarking. The following morning, the island appeared to have disappeared as if by magic, until the sun appeared above the mist, illuminating the peak of Teide: a ray of consolation. Today, the landscapes and the natural environment of the Canary Islands continue to attract hundreds of thousands of nature lovers each and every year.

Flora and fauna

The climatic conditions, consistent with the geography and added to a whole host of other factors make up the essential substrate of this archipelago which, since its very beginning, has been colonized by flora and fauna from surrounding areas, populating the islands and their waters.

These colonizing species, whether arriving via phenomena of active dispersion (flying, swimming, etc.) or passive dispersion (floating in the water or in the air, etc.), underwent processes of geographical and adaptive specialization that have generated, right up to the present day, a genetic pool of endemic species that places these islands among the most important regions in the world in terms of flora. Taking into account the age of the islands and their proximity to both the African and European continents, we know that their terrestrial flora and fauna originate from these two different zones.

Of special importance is the survival of tertiary forests, now practically non-existent in the rest of the world, known as laurisilva, of which Tenerife preserves some spectacular specimens.

Terrestrial fauna is represented by a great variety of invertebrates (more than five thousand species) occupying every habitat on the islands and featuring a high ratio of endemic species. Vertebrates, although not as numerous, include mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, including many fish species introduced recently in lagoons and reservoirs.

The marine fauna is very similar to that of the Atlantic coasts on both sides of the ocean, mixing with that of the Mediterranean and generating a great diversity of species, albeit in relatively small populations. Examples include the five different species of turtles that inhabit our coastlines and that possibly also nest along them at times, such as the leatherback turtle and others which often share the same waters, such as the loggerhead and hawksbill turtles.

As for marine mammals, although some examples of monk seals have been spotted living in the archipelago (on the Isla de Lobos), the most common mammals that swim the internal waters and the island coasts are the bottlenose and common dolphins, the sperm whale, pilot whales and the beaked whale, although more than twenty species of cetaceans have been sighted here and can be seen on special tourist trips that set out from the port of Los Cristianos.

Landscapes

On the island of Tenerife, the natural environments not put to use by human activity are combined into protected areas, primarily to ensure their preservation. The island is home to a national park, a natural park and two rural parks, to which we can add a number of integral and special nature reserves, natural monuments, protected landscapes and sites of scientific interest. In total there are 43 spaces, which together occupy approximately half of the surface area of the island.


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