Mention the Galapagos Islands to people and you’re guaranteed a response of acknowledgement. The fame of this Pacific archipelago is so great, especially amongst naturalists, that it has become the world’s primary ecotourism destination. However, mention Socotra – the Indian Ocean’s equivalent of the Galapagos – to the same individuals, and chances are they’ll return you with a blank stare. This inbalance in celebrity is understandable when you consider that whilst one island chain was the catalyst for Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’ and thereafter our entire understanding of evolutionary science, the other is historically renowned as little more than a producer of frankincense and cinnabar and only saw it’s first tarmac airstrip open in 1999.
Such a disparity is also reflected in the respective quantities of literature written about these two archipelagos. However, with the recent publication of Socotra, conservationists, ecologists and evolutionary biologists now have at their fingertips a definitive natural history of these remote Yemeni islands. Detailing the hundreds of endemic species which have evolved in isolation for 6 million years, the marine life, conservation initiatives and human culture in a highly-readable format, this book should help raise awareness of Socotra’s importance to global biodiversity conservation. For anybody lucky enough to visit Socotra, this book is all you need. Except maybe a camera.