Q1.
Why do you think some birds and animals are found only on these islands?
Answer
Because the sea keeps them shut in. An island is surrounded by water on all sides, so land animals and small birds cannot walk or fly across to other places, and animals from other places cannot easily come in.
Here is the story, step by step.
- Long, long ago a few birds or animals reached these islands — blown by a storm, or floating on a raft of broken branches.
- They stayed. They could not go back across so much open sea.
- Life on the island was a little different — different food, different trees, different weather, and often no big hunters.
- Over thousands and thousands of years, the ones that suited the island best lived on and had young. Slowly the whole group changed.
- In the end they became different from their cousins on the mainland. Now they live here and nowhere else on Earth.
| Found only on these islands | What it is |
|---|---|
| Andaman wood pigeon | A dark forest pigeon, shown in the photograph on page 97 |
| Andaman hornbill | A big black bird with a heavy pale bill, also on page 97 |
| Many island trees | Rani says several kinds grow only on these islands |
The same thing happens without a sea: a wall of high hills can shut a place in just as well. That is why the lion-tailed macaque is found only in the Western Ghats and nowhere else. A living thing found in one place only is said to belong to that place. This is exactly what makes such a place a nature's hotspot — and exactly why losing that one forest would mean losing those living things for ever.
Think about it: If a bird lives in a hundred places and one forest is cut, the bird still has ninety-nine. If it lives in one place only, cutting that one forest ends it. That is why island forests need extra care.