Fauna

Earth Funna

The most common animal in the Maldives is the gecko that lives on walls close to artificial light and feeds on insects. There are also small reptiles, called “bondu”, which are yellow-headed iguanas. Thanks to their skin, they mimic trees and sand very well.

The only mammals are small palm mice and flying foxes.Flying foxes are bats that can be easily spotted in the evening, when they fly among the palms. They feed on fruits and are absolutely harmless to the humans. On some islands, one can find cats and rabbits brought by local people working in the resorts. Many bird species can be found in the Maldives: crows, herons, terns, crackles, sea eagles, etc.

There are more than 12 species of herons and the most common is the grey heron (Ardea Cinerea Rectirostris). Very often, during the low tide, it keeps still in the lagoon with its legs in the water, ready to fly and hunt blue fish, its favourite food. Other birds are hard to spot, as they spend all the day among or over the trees.

MARINE FAUNA

Maldives are outstanding not only for their colourful and transparent water, but also to for their spectacular marine life. You cannot visit the Maldives without snorkelling and admiring that amazing show. Swimming among different species of multi-coloured fish, admiring the slow movements of turtles and reef sharks, is a unique and unforgettable experience. The ichthyic benthic fauna includes different species of fish: the surgeonfish with two sharpened spines on his tail, used for self defence; the butterfly fish, that eats coral polyps and corals; the angelfish, which is probably the most beautiful among the reef fishes, shy but curious at the same time; the triggerfish, with its particular horizontal swimming.

Some species (giant triggerfish) can be very aggressive if you get too close to them during the reproduction period.
The parrotfish uses its characteristic beak-like mouth to snap-off pieces of coral to get algae. It is one of the main producers of coral sand in the lagoon, since it minces coral producing very thin sand. The pufferfish and porcupinefish are very shy animals, which swallow water in order to swell, appear larger and frighten the enemies. Do not bother them, as they could also become scared to death.

You can also see many species of groupers with different colours, very nice clownfishes inside beautiful anemones, trumpetfishes with their characteristic shape, big and peaceful napoleonfishes, common stingrays and morays. Some species can be dangerous if you bother or touch them, such as the lionfish, which hides harmful but not lethal spines (unless you’re allergic) between the dorsal and pectoral fins.

The stonefish is absolutely the most dangerous fish, as its venom is very toxic and because he can perfectly camouflage in the sand or among the corals. Its venom causes blackout, hypotension, hypothermia and breath diseases.
Don’t touch anything and don’t walk anywhere except on sand and wearing fins, otherwise you can get cuts or scraps, and – more important – you can severely damage the corals. Pelagic ichthyic fauna includes sharks, manta rays, barracudas, tunas, sailfishes and marlins. When you snorkel, it is not hard to spot white-tip, black-tip, grey-tip, and nurse sharks, stingrays, eagle rays and even leopard sharks.

When you dive you can meet hammerhead sharks, giant guitarfishes and whale sharks. Some of these are completely harmless (stingrays, eagle rays, nurse sharks, whale sharks and leopard sharks), others are potentially dangerous, but if you do not bother them, they will not hurt you. Turtles can be easily seen while snorkelling, whereas dolphins can be seen from the boats or when they pass by in front of the islands.

BONY FISHES AND CARTILAGINOUS FISHES

Fishes belong to two different classes of vertebrates: the cartilaginous fishes (or Chondrichthyes) and bony fishes (or Osteichthyes). The Chondrichthyes include stingrays, torpedo fishes, common stingrays, eagle rays, mantas and sharks. All the other sea and freshwater fishes, nor mentioned above, are bony fishes. Main feature of the Chondrichthyes is their cartilaginous skeleton, which is not a sign of primitiveness, but of a secondary adaptation. These fishes maintained a cartilaginous skeleton as they were able to swim also without a bony skeleton. No earth vertebrate developed from these animals, as a cartilaginous skeleton could nor bear the body weight. Therefore all the vertebrates, such as amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and even the humans derive from a old fish ancestor.

The majority of the primitive Chondrichthyes extinguished 245 million years ago and the current cartilaginous fishes appeared between the Jurassic and the Cretaceous, between 245 and 65 million years ago. Today they still have many of the past features; some fossils witness the perfect adaptation of the sharks to the environment.