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Ouvéa Island
Ouvéa Island or Uvea Island is one of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The island is part of the communes of France, commune (municipality) of Ouvéa, in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia. Geography The crescent-shaped island, which belongs to a larger atoll, is long and wide. It lies north east of ''Grande Terre'', New Caledonia's mainland. History Ouvéa is a Polynesian outlier originally settled by Polynesian navigation, Polynesian navigators who named it for their home island, Wallis Island, Uvea Island. Some of their descendants still speak the West Uvean language. Demographics Ouvéa is home to around 3,000 people who are organized into tribes divided into Polynesians and Melanesians by ethnic descent. The Iaai language is spoken on the island. Flora and fauna Ouvéa has rich marine resources and is home to many sea turtles, species of fish, coral as well as a native parrot, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), the Pacific Ocean is the largest division of the World Ocean and the hydrosphere and covers approximately 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of the planet's total surface area, larger than its entire land area ().Pacific Ocean . ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Britannica Concise.'' 2008: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The centers of both the Land and water hemispheres, water hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere, as well as the Pole of inaccessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynesian Outlier
Polynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that geographically lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle; instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific subregions, Melanesia and Micronesia. Based on archaeological and linguistic analysis, these islands are considered to have been colonized by seafaring Polynesians, mostly from the area of Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu. The closest Polynesian outliers, Anuta and Tikopia in Solomon Islands, were settled some time between the 10th and 13th centuries and subsequently received multiple waves of Polynesian immigration, while the farthest outlier, Nukuoro in the Federated States of Micronesia, was only settled in the 18th century. General definition The region commonly termed "Polynesia" includes thousands of islands, most of them arranged in a rough triangle bounded by Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. Outside this Polynesian Triangle, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bonefish
The bonefish (''Albula vulpes'') is the type species of the Bonefishes, bonefish family (Albulidae), the only family in order Albuliformes. Taxonomy Bonefish were once believed to be a single species with a global distribution, however 9 different species have since been identified. There are three identified species in the Atlantic and six in the Pacific. ''Albula vulpes'' is the largest and most widespread of the Atlantic species. Distribution This species inhabits warm subtropical and tropical waters of the western Atlantic, and is found off the coasts of southern Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and the West Indies. Description The bonefish weighs up to and measures up to long. The color of bonefish can range from very silver sides and slight darker backs to olive green backs that blend to the silver side. Slight shading on the scales often leads to very soft subtle lines that run the flank of the fish from the gills to the tail. The bases of the pectoral fins are someti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coconut Crab
The coconut crab (''Birgus latro'') is a terrestrial species of giant hermit crab, and is also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest terrestrial arthropod known, with a weight up to . The distance from the tip of one leg to the tip of another can be as wide as . It is found on islands across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as far east as the Gambier Islands, Pitcairn Islands, and Caroline Island, and as far west as Zanzibar. While its range broadly shadows the distribution of the coconut palm, the coconut crab has been extirpated from most areas with a significant human population such as mainland Australia and Madagascar. The coconut crab is the only species of the genus ''Birgus'', and is related to the other terrestrial hermit crabs of the genus '' Coenobita''. It shows a number of adaptations to life on land. Juvenile coconut crabs use empty gastropod shells for protection like other hermit crabs, but the adults develop a tough exoskeleton on their ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crustacean
Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthropods including decapods (shrimps, prawns, crabs, lobsters and crayfish), seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, opossum shrimps, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the hexapods (insects and entognathans) emerged deep in the Crustacean group, with the completed pan-group referred to as Pancrustacea. The three classes Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda and Remipedia are more closely related to the hexapods than they are to any of the other crustaceans ( oligostracans and multicrustaceans). The 67,000 described species range in size from '' Stygotantulus stocki'' at , to the Japanese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uvea Parakeet
The Ouvea parakeet (''Eunymphicus uvaeensis'') or Uvea parakeet, is a species of parrot in the genus ''Eunymphicus'', in the family Psittaculidae. It is endemic to the island of Uvea in the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. The species was once considered conspecific with the horned parakeet of Grande Terre, but they have now been split into two species. Description The Ouvea parakeet is a medium-sized parakeet with mostly green plumage and a prominent green crest. The crest is composed of six backward feathers that curl forwards. The underside of the bird tends to be yellower and there is bright blue on the wings and tail. The face is dark and the beak is black, lacking the yellow on the face of the horned parakeet. Diet The species has a preference for natural forests and laurel forest habitat while avoiding coconut plantations and coastal vegetation.Olivier Robinet, Vincent Bretagnolle and Mick Clout (2003) "Activity patterns, habitat use, foraging behaviour and food selecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iaai Language
Iaai (Iaai pronunciation: ; ) is a language of Ouvéa Island (New Caledonia). It shares the island of Ouvéa with West Uvean, Fagauvea, a Polynesian outlier language. Iaai is the sixth-most-spoken language of New Caledonia, with 4078 speakers as of 2009. It is taught in schools in an effort to preserve it. The language has been studied by linguists Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre and Anne-Laure Dotte. Phonology Iaai is remarkable for its large inventory of unusual phonemes, in particular its consonants, with a rich variety of voiceless nasals and approximants. Vowels Iaai has ten vowel qualities, all of which may occur long and short. There is little difference in quality depending on length. Iaai constitutes one of the few cases of front rounded vowels attested outside of their geographic stronghold in Eurasia, even if other cases have since been reported in the Oceanic family.See for example Löyöp, Lemerig, Vurës of northern Vanuatu, p.194 of: . The vowel is only known t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Uvean Language
West Uvean (also Uvean or Faga Ouvéa; ''Fagauvea'' in the vernacular) is a Polynesian outlier language spoken on the island of Ouvéa, in the Loyalty island group of New Caledonia, and in the capital of Nouméa. West Uvean has been studied by linguists Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre and Claire Moyse-Faurie. Name The speakers designate their language by the name Fagauvea, which is also the name used in French. The name ''West Uvean'' sometimes used in English is meant to distinguish the language from the related ''East Uvean'' or Wallisian, spoken on Wallis Island (Uvea). Phonology West Uvean has long been in contact with Iaai, the Southern Oceanic language also spoken on the same island. This contact has resulted in four vowels being added to the phonemic system of West Uvean; and to a complexification of the syllable structure, allowing for final consonants. // is only heard in intervocalic position. Grammar Numeral system West Uvean is the only Polynesian language to u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallis Island
Wallis () is a Polynesian atoll/island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the French overseas collectivity (''collectivité d'outre-mer'', or ''COM'') of Wallis and Futuna. It lies north of Tonga, northeast of Fiji, east-northeast of the Hoorn Islands, east of Fiji's Rotuma, southeast of Tuvalu, southwest of Tokelau and west of Samoa. Its area is almost with 8,333 people. Its capital is Mata Utu. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion. Its highest point is Mount Lulu Fakahega (). Wallis is of volcanic origin with fertile soil and some remaining lakes. Rainfall is plentiful. It was part of the Tongan maritime empire from around the 13th to 16th century. By that time the influence of the Tui Tonga had declined so much that Uvea became important in itself. The big fortress of Talietumu close to Lotoalahi in Mua was the last holdout of the Tongans until they were defeated. The island was renamed "Wallis" after a Cornish navigator, Captain Samuel Wallis, who saw it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynesian Navigation
Polynesian navigation or Polynesian wayfinding was used for thousands of years to enable long voyages across thousands of kilometres of the Pelagic zone, open Pacific Ocean. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangle, using outrigger canoes or double-hulled canoes. The double-hulled canoes were two large hulls, equal in length, and lashed side by side. The space between the paralleled canoes allowed for storage of food, hunting materials, and nets when embarking on long voyages. Polynesian navigators used wayfinding techniques such as the navigation by the stars, and observations of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns, and relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition. This island hopping was a solution to the scarcity of useful resources, such as food, wood, water, and available land, on the small islands in the Pacific Ocean. When an island’s required resources for human survival began to run low, the island's inhabitant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most of the approximately 440 atolls in the world are in the Pacific Ocean. Two different, well-cited models, the subsidence model and the antecedent karst model, have been used to explain the development of atolls.Droxler, A.W. and Jorry, S.J., 2021. "The Origin of Modern Atolls: Challenging Darwin's Deeply Ingrained Theory". ''Annual Review of Marine Science'', 13, pp. 537–573. According to Charles Darwin's subsidence model, the formation of an atoll is explained by the sinking of a volcanic island around which a coral fringing reef has formed. Over geologic time, the volcanic island becomes extinct and eroded as it subsides completely beneath the surface of the ocean. As the volcanic island subsides, the coral fringing reef becomes a ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loyalty Islands
Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre. The provincial government seat is at Lifou. The Loyalty Islands are a '' collectivité territoriale'' of France. The province's 2019 population was approximately 18,353 inhabitants living on almost . The native inhabitants are Melanesians who speak various Kanak languages and Polynesians who speak the Fagauvea language. History The first Western contact on record is attributed to British Captain William Raven of the whaler ''Britannia'', who was on his way in 1793 from Norfolk Island to Batavia (now called Jakarta). It is very likely, however, that the discovery and name originated with officials on the London ship ''Loyalty'', which was on a Pacific Ocean trading voyage from 1789 to 1790. The French Government demanded the removal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
