Vanuatu

Vanuatu is an island nation in Melanesia, consisting of a chain of 13 principal and many smaller islands, in the South Pacific Ocean. The volcanic archipelago lies 1750 km east of North Australia and 540 km northeast of New Caledonia. Vanuatu is a Y-shaped archipelago with some 83 relatively small islands of recent geological volcanic origin, 65 of which are inhabited, with a distance of about 1,300 kilometers between the northernmost and southernmost islands. Vanuatu has several active volcanoes, including Lopevi, Mount Yasur and many underwater volcanoes. Volcanic activity is frequent in the area and there is always the risk of a major eruption. Vanuatu is recognized as a separate terrestrial ecoregion called the Rainforests of Vanuatu. Although it has tropical forests, Vanuatu has relatively few terrestrial flora and fauna species. There is an indigenous flying fox, the Pteropus anetianus. These flying foxes are significant rainforest and tree regenerators, pollinating and seed dispersing many native tree species. Their diet consists of nectar, pollen and fruit, so they are commonly known as "fruit bats", but unfortunately, they are declining in their South Pacific range. Among the 19 species of reptiles native to the islands, the Flowerpot Snake is found only on Efate. The Fiji Banded Iguana was introduced to the island in the 1960s as a feral animal, and there are eleven species of bats and sixty-one species of land and water birds. The area is rich in marine life, with over 4,000 species of marine mollusks and a wide variety of marine fish.