Wetar is a tropical island which belongs to the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n province of Maluku and is the largest island of the Maluku

Barat Daya Islands The Barat Daya Islands ( id, Kepulauan Barat Daya) are a group of islands in the Maluku (province), Maluku province of Indonesia. The Indonesian phrase ''barat daya'' means 'south-west'. Geography These islands are located off the eastern end of ...

(literally ''Southwest Islands'') of the Maluku Islands. It lies east of the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

, which include nearby Alor and

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

, but it is politically part of the

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

. To the south, across the

Wetar Strait Wetar Strait ( id, Selat Wetar, pt, Estreito de Wetar, tet, Estreitu Wetar) is an international strait in Southeast Asia. It separates the island of Wetar from the eastern part of the island of Timor. The strait is also the eastern portion ...

, lies the island of Timor; at its closest it is 50 km away. To the west, across the

Ombai Strait Ombai Strait ( id, Selat Ombai, pt, Estreito de Ombai, tet, Estreitu Ombai) is an international strait in Southeast Asia. It separates the Alor Archipelago from the islands of Wetar, Atauro, and Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands. The strait ...

, lies the island of Alor. To the southwest is the very small island of

Liran Liran ( id, Pulau Liran, ) is a small island off the southwest coast of Wetar Island, Indonesia. Administratively it is part of West Wetar District (''Kecamatan Wetar Barat'') within the Southwest Maluku Regency (''Kabupaten Maluku Barat Daya''). ...

, which is also part of Wetar

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

(''kecamatan'') and, further southwest, the small

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

ese island of

Atauro Atauro ( pt, Ilha de Ataúro, Tetum and Indonesian: ''Pulau Atauro'' or ''Ata'uro''), also known as Kambing Island ( id, Pulau Kambing), is an island and municipality ( pt, Município Ataúro, links=no, tet, Munisípiu Atauro, links=no or ...

. To the north is the

Banda Sea The Banda Sea ( id, Laut Banda, pt, Mar de Banda, tet, Tasi Banda) is one of four seas that surround the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, connected to the Pacific Ocean, but surrounded by hundreds of islands, including Timor, as well as the Halma ...

and to the east lie Romang and Damar Islands, while to the southeast lie the other principal islands of the Barat Daya Islands. Including Liran, Wetar has an area of 2,651.9 km², and had a population of 7,916 at the 2010 Census. Wetar is one of the 92 officially listed outlying islands of Indonesia. The principal towns on Wetar are Lioppa in the northwest, Ilwaki in the south, Wasiri in the north, Masapun in the east, and Arwala in the northeast. These are connected by roads.

Geography

Wetar is 120 km long (measured from to east-most tip to west-most tip), and about 43 km north-to-south. It has an area of approximately 2652 km². It is surrounded by coral reefs and deep seas. The highest point on the island is 1412 m. Wetar is part of a

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

island arc Island arcs are long chains of active volcanoes with intense seismic activity found along convergent tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have resulted from the descent of the lithosphere into the mantle alon ...

which includes the other Barat Daya Islands and the

Banda Islands The Banda Islands ( id, Kepulauan Banda) are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Central M ...

, created by the collision of the

Indo-Australian Plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

and the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

. It is not, however, principally of volcanic origin, being instead mainly

oceanic crust Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramafic cumu ...

that has been lifted by the plate collision. The

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

Gunungapi Wetar forms an isolated island to the north of Wetar. There are a number of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

mines on Wetar, which have been poorly managed and constitute an environmental concern. Along with other nearby islands, it formed part of

Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as Lo ...

, the area of deep water separated from both the

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

continental shelves A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

. This region is known for its unusual fauna, and Wetar is no exception. It has 162 species of birds, three of which are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

, and four of which are

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

. Rainfall is highly seasonal based on the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

, and the islands are mostly covered in tropical dry broadleaf forests that are partly deciduous, with many trees losing their leaves in the dry season. It forms part of the

Timor and Wetar deciduous forests The Timor and Wetar deciduous forests is a tropical dry forest ecoregion in Indonesia and East Timor. The ecoregion includes the islands of Timor, Wetar, Rote, Savu, and adjacent smaller islands. Geography Timor, Wetar, Rote, and Savu are pa ...

ecoregion. The island has one single lake, Danau Tihu.

Culture

There are a number of

Malayo-Polynesian languages The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...

endemic to Wetar and the nearby islands of

and

. Called ''Wetarese'', they are Aputai, Ili'uun,

Perai Perai is an urban settlement in the city of Seberang Perai, Penang, Malaysia. It lies at the southern bank of the Perai River and borders Butterworth to the north. Perai gave its name to the city of Seberang Perai, the mainland half of the State o ...

, and Tugun. There is also Talur, a dialect of Galoli of East Timor. These are spoken by small groups of about 1,000 people each. The national language

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

and regional

Ambonese Malay Ambonese Malay or simply Ambonese is a Malay-based creole language spoken on Ambon Island in the Maluku Islands of Eastern Indonesia. It was first brought by traders from Western Indonesia, then developed when the Dutch Empire colonised the Ma ...

are commonly used. The main economic activity on Wetar is

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

, principally of

sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is ...

Tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...

shells are also gathered and exported to countries where the trade is not banned.

Endemic fauna

* Wetar ground-dove *

Wetar figbird The Wetar figbird (''Sphecotheres hypoleucus'') is a species of bird in the family Oriolidae. It is endemic to forest, woodland and scrub on the Indonesian island of Wetar. The Wetar figbird remains poorly known, and although threatened by habit ...

* Wetar Island python * Wetar lorikeet

References

External links

ENWetar Ground-dove ''Gallicolumba hoedtii''Hans Hägerdal, ''Wetar and Kisar in Indonesia, and East Timor''
{{Authority control Barat Daya Islands Islands of the Maluku Islands

Geography

Culture

Endemic fauna

See also

References

External links