Mohéli National Park is a national park in the

Comoros The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city is Moroni, ...

. It includes marine, coastal, and terrestrial areas on and around the island of

Mohéli Mohéli , also known as Mwali, is an autonomously-governed island that forms part of the Union of the Comoros. It is the smallest of the three major islands in the country. It is located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa and it is the ...

. The park has an area of 643.62 km².UNEP-WCMC (2021). Protected Area Profile for Parc National de Mohéli from the World Database of Protected Areas. Accessed 10 August 2021

/ref> Established as Mohéli Marine Park on 19 April 2001, it was first protected area in the

. It was redesignated a national park in 2010. In 2015 the park was expanded to include about three-quarters of Mohéli's terrestrial area. It is the southernmost territory of the southernmost Arabic-speaking country.

Marine

The marine portion of the park extends from the southern and eastern shores of the island. It includes a fringing reef some distance from the shore, which encloses a lagoon 10 to 60 meters deep, along with eight small mountainous islets, along with the open ocean beyond the reef to a depth of 100 meters. There are 91 ha of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s along the shore of the island, and seagrass beds in the lagoon.Abdou, Ahmed Youssouf. "Scientific Information for Marine Protected Areas in the Union of Comoros. EBSAs. Area: Moheli Marine Park (PMM) Comoros". Accessed 31 August 2021

/ref> A notable feature of the park is the population of coelecanths, the park is home to varieties of

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

s and

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

s.UNESCO
The Iles Éparses (Scattered Islands)
Retrieved on September 16, 2017 Other marine species include the

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest ...

(''Dugong dugon''),

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exte ...

(''Chelonia mydas''),

hawksbill turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution that is largely ...

(''Eretmochelys imbricata''), eight species of dolphins, and two species of bottlenose whales.Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (2014). ''Ecosystem Profile: Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands.'' Final Report, December 2014. Comoros-Mchaco island

The islets are breeding colonies for seabirds, including the

masked booby The masked booby (''Sula dactylatra''), also called the masked gannet or the blue-faced booby, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae. First described by the French naturalist René-Primevère Lesson in 1831, the masked boob ...

(''Sula dactylatra''),

brown noddy The brown noddy or common noddy (''Anous stolidus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related black noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black. The ...

(''Anous stolidus''),

white-tailed tropicbird The white-tailed tropicbird (''Phaethon lepturus'') or yellow-billed tropicbird is a tropicbird. It is the smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans and smallest member of the order Phaethontiformes. It is found in the tro ...

(''Phaethon lepturus''),

lesser frigatebird The lesser frigatebird (''Fregata ariel'') is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. At around 75 cm (30 in) in length, it is the smallest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtropical waters across the Indian ...

(''Fregata ariel''), and

great frigatebird The great frigatebird (''Fregata minor'') is a large seabird in the frigatebird family (biology), family. There are major nesting populations in the tropical Pacific Ocean, such as Hawaii and the Galápagos Islands; in the Indian Ocean, colonies ...

(''Fregata minor'').

Terrestrial

The terrestrial portion of the park has rugged terrain, with deep stream valleys separated by ridges. The highest point is Mont Mlédjélé (790 m). Most of the island was once forested, but most of the forest was cleared for agriculture or livestock raising, or degraded by activities like timber harvesting. A large enclave of relatively intact forest remains on the west and south-facing slopes of Mount Mlédjélé. The forest is home to the native trees '' Pterophylla comorensis'' and ''

Khaya madagascariensis ''Khaya madagascariensis'' is a species of plant in the family Meliaceae. It is found in Comoros and Madagascar. Description ''Khaya madagascariensis'' is an evergreen tree which grows 13 to 24 meters tall. Range and habitat ''Khaya madagascari ...

'', which are valued for their timber, and many other species of trees, shrubs, ferns, and orchids, including many Comorian endemic species. Native animals include Livingstone's fruit bat (''Pteropus livingstonii''), which lives only on Mohéli and Anjouan, the Moheli scops owl (''Otus moheliensis'') and Moheli brush warbler (''Nesillas mariae''), which are endemic to Mohéli, and other species of birds, reptiles, and insects endemic to the Comoro Islands.

Freshwater

The park also includes Lake Dziani-Boudouni, a freshwater crater lake in the island's southern lowlands. The lake covers an area of 30 ha, and may be linked to subterranean volcanic vents. It supports a diverse population of birds.

References

{{Authority control Mohéli National parks of the Comoros Ramsar sites in the Comoros