\nFiji crested iguanas<\/p>\n
Yes there are perfect beaches with crystal clear water \u2013 but did you know there\u2019s also a bright orange dove with a green head?<\/p>\n
Fiji is a paradise we associate with long stretches of white sand beaches and crystal clear waters. Postcards with palms and bungalows built over the sea. Stunning, and true, but the archipelago is much more than its shores. It\u2019s got range. Lush rainforests and gnarly volcanic peaks lie behind the beaches, and deep beneath the water, the seabed drops into ravines edged by volcanic rocks and dramatic coral reefs. These diverse natural environments are full of cool critters that have adapted to them, and often can be found nowhere else. Here are three of these curious and beautiful animals that deserve your attention.<\/p>\n
Pink fishies (Image: Supplied)
\nFiji crested iguanas<\/p>\n
Brachylophus vitiensis for the science nerds, and sweet little monsters (non-derogatory) for the visual learners, Fiji crested iguanas are, in fact, movie stars. They starred alongside Brooke Shields in 1980\u2019s The Blue Lagoon, and showed off their white bands in the more PG 2013 film Return to Nim\u2019s Island. These days, the iguanas are content to spend most of their time in Vau trees, eating their favourite snack, sweet yellow hibiscus flowers. Luckily they have long toes and very long tails to keep balance and move through trees.<\/p>\n
Mr. Iguana (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n
You can distinguish a Fiji crested iguana from other Fijian iguanas because they\u2019re bigger, growing about as long as a human adult\u2019s arm (75cm), because of the three creamy white (not blue) bands on the males, and because they have a tall spiky crest running along their spines (tall in this case meaning 1.5cm). Although Fiji crested iguanas change colour, bob their heads, and pounce when threatened, this has not been enough to protect them from becoming critically endangered. They only live in tropical dry forests, which are found on northwestern islands of the Fijiian archipelago, and are one of the most threatened vegetation types in the Pacific and the world. Along with habitat loss, the Fiji crested iguanas have had to contend with rats, cats, mongooses and goats that prey on their eggs and young, and destroy their habitat \u2013 such mean mammals!<\/p>\n
Most Fiji crested iguanas, about 4,000 individuals, live in a legally protected area on Yadua Taba island which cannot be visited thanks to a poaching incident in 2005. But on Malolo island, where it was thought the iguanas were extinct till 2010, small populations have been supported by conservation efforts run by resorts, and are now growing in number. Likuliku Lagoon Resort runs an invasive species management program and forest restoration, and Six Senses Fiji is planting native trees essential to the iguana\u2019s diet. To see those little yellow nostrils IRL, Malolo is where I would start.<\/p>\n
On land and at sea, there\u2019s a lot to see in Fiji (Image: Supplied, poem by The Spinoff)
\nReef manta rays<\/p>\n
They\u2019re majestic, a little intimidating, and glide into their watery world filter-first. In Fiji, manta rays are usually reef mantas (Mobula alfredi) whose wingspans can grow up to five metres \u2013 about the length of your car. They\u2019re gentle giants, with no teeth or barbs or anything else to hurt with, though their tails do look a bit like a whip. They have a strange appendix on either side of their mouths \u2013 cephalic fins. These flare out to channel water into the ray\u2019s mouth, and roll up into spirals for swimming with less drag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imagine your car for scale (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n
As well as filtering for zooplankton, reef manta rays like to hang out at cleaning stations \u2013 coral patches and rocky outcrops where cleaner fish live. The rays present their bellies to these fish, floating still above their homes, so that the fish can eat away dead skin, ectoparasites, and any infected tissue there. This is a symbiotic and cooperative behaviour. It seems reef manta rays have a tendency towards mutual relationships \u2013 in 2019 groundbreaking research showed that they have complex social lives and close friendships. The lead scientist told National Geographic<\/a> that reef mantas are \u201creasonably intelligent\u201d and \u201care not the solitary, mindless, socially bereft animals that we perhaps thought them to be in the past\u201d.<\/p>\n