We are done with various aspects of island life. But we haven’t touched one final entrant — the humans.
Every island has its own culture. Each islander has his own skill set to survive in their conditions. They learned their skills over years of trial and error.
The people in the island have learned the craft and skill needed to make a boat with facilities to travel long distances to find new colonies to extend their clan. They make the boats with the tree trunks and tie them with threads prepared by coconut husk.
Some observed the birds traveling across their islands and followed them to find a new island.
Some identify an approaching island by their effect on the ripples on the surface of the sea. Tall islands leave a trail of clouds like a chimney from a factory. So they can be detected even before reaching it. With such observational skills and techniques Polynesians colonized island after island.
But there is a flip-side to this story.
Many animals have become extinct because of the humanization of the islands. People when they colonized an island, they introduced their pets (cats etc) and also some new animals to the island. These animals hunted the defense-less and flight-less birds and eventually caused their extinction.
One of the greatest contributions of islands is the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin’s legendary journey to the Galapagos islands has provided almost all the evidence for his theory. He collected numerous samples from these islands to prove his theory. On close examination he understood that the tortoises living on each Galapagos island have developed unique physical characteristics, features and food habits based on the conditions present in their respective islands.
Every island tortoise is different from its neighboring island. Each has developed its own uniqueness and survived and others which were unable to adapt collapsed without a trace. For example one tortoise has developed a longer neck because its food is available not on the ground but on the small plants which can be reached only when it stretches its neck. Hence this resulted in their change –the long neck.
I am concluding this island series but if there is an interesting insight (about an island) worth a post then sure I will share it with you in the future.
Hope you enjoyed your stay in the island.
