The Îles de la Madeleine lie west of Dakar in Senegal. The islands are uninhabited. The main island is Sarpan, known for its

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

tool finds. The islands are also known for their birds, fish and plant life. The cliffs are steep, and had been carved by the sea over millions of years. Îles de la Madeleine National Park is one of the smallest

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

s in the world.

Îles de la Madeleine National Park

At just ,Magdalen Islands (Iles de la Madeleine) in Senegal
Protected Planet ''Le Parc National des Îles de la Madeleine'' is the smallest national park in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List site. (''Île aux Serpents''), the largest of the islands, is home to breeding colonies of red-billed tropicbird,

white-breasted cormorant The white-breasted cormorant (''Phalacrocorax lucidus'') is much like the widespread great cormorant and if not a regional variant of the same species, is at least very closely related. It is distinguished from other forms of the great cormorant ...

, and

bridled tern The bridled tern (''Onychoprion anaethetus'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans. The scientific name is from Ancient Greek. The genus comes from ' meaning "claw" or "nail", and , meaning "saw". The specific ...

Tree

When French naturalist Michel Adanson explored the islands in 1749, he claimed to have found a

baobab ''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...

that was in diameter, which bore the carvings of passing mariners on its trunk, including those of

Prince Henry the Navigator ''Dom'' Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu (4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator ( pt, Infante Dom Henrique, o Navegador), was a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15t ...

in 1444 and André Thevet in 1555.Wickens, Gerald E.; Lowe, Pat (2008). The baobabs pachycauls of Africa, Madagascar and Australia. New York: Springer Science + Business Media, B.V. pp. 31–. ISBN 9781402064319. From this he concluded that the species was extraordinarily long-lived. When Théodore Monod searched the island in the 20th century, this tree was not to be found.

References

Islands of Africa Geography of Senegal National parks of Senegal World Heritage Sites in Senegal Atlantic islands of Senegal {{Africa-protected-area-stub

Îles de la Madeleine National Park

Tree

See also

References