Origins of the flora & fauna

The Canary Islands have never been connected to continental Africa by a land bridge. Even when sea level was much lower, during glacial periods, there was still a substantial barrier to colonisation from the mainland.

There are three main mechanisms by which plants and animals have become established on Tenerife

  • Natural colonisation
  • Accidental introduction
  • Deliberate introduction

There are 100 km or so of ocean between Africa and Fuerteventura, a similar gap between that island and Gran Cararia and another 60 km to Tenerife. This barrier will be insurmountable to some species but trivial to others. It is to be expected that Tenerife’s natural flora and fauna will be dominated by elements with their origins in highly mobile pioneering species. However, some plants and animals will have arrived by very unusual routes. Fifteen million years is a long time - even highly unlikely events will occur many times.

Humans have been actively introducing plants to the island of many centuries and it often impossible now to be certain of the origins of an individual cosmopolitan species. However, the large number of endemic species indicates that there has been a long history of natural colonisation extending back to the Tertiary origins of the archipelago.

Site last updated May 2002 : r.middleton@hull.ac.uk