The Desertas Islands are a small Portuguese archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

, located about 25 km to the southeast of Ponta de São Lourenço, the eastern tip of the island of Madeira

Madeira

Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...

, the whole chain located roughly between Madeira

Madeira

Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...

 and the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

.

Geography

It is a chain of three long and narrow islands that stretch over a distance of 23 km north-south. Administratively, the islands are part of the municipality of Santa Cruz, Madeira

Santa Cruz, Madeira

Santa Cruz is a municipality, a parish and a city in the eastern part of the island of Madeira. Much of the municipality is mountainous and apart from residential areas, farmlands and orchards cover the remainder of the land...

, and therein of the civil parish

Freguesia

Freguesia is the Portuguese term for a secondary local administrative unit in Portugal and some of its former colonies, and a former secondary local administrative unit in Macau, roughly equivalent to an administrative parish. A freguesia is a subdivision of a concelho, the Portuguese synonym term...

 of the same name. The islands are a designated nature reserve and a licence is needed to land there.
Though close to the main island of Madeira, where the islands can often be seen on the horizon, the geology of the Ilhas Desertas is starkly different. The high, long, and rocky islands of the group are barren of soil

Soil

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

, and the only wildlife

Wildlife

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....

 consists of about sixteen species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s, including eight species of seabirds, and a scarce population of feral

Feral

A feral organism is one that has changed from being domesticated to being wild or untamed. In the case of plants it is a movement from cultivated to uncultivated or controlled to volunteer. The introduction of feral animals or plants to their non-native regions, like any introduced species, may...

 goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...

s, rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

s, and rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....

s, brought from Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 by the mariners who first touched the rocky shores. Native species of tarantula

Tarantula

Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and often very large arachnids belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Some members of the same Suborder may also be called "tarantulas" in the common parlance. This article will restrict itself to...

, as well as reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s, also exist in the fragile and arid

Arid

A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...

 ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

.

The only inhabitable island, with its own water source, is Deserta Grande

Deserta Grande Island

The Deserta Grande Island is the main island of the Desertas Islands, a small chain of islands in the archipelago of Madeira, located to the southeast of the island of Madeira. The island is a nature reserve with a manned base halfway along the western side...

. This water is however murky and scarce, and all historical attempts to colonise the island failed due to the impracticability of communal agriculture.

A tiny colony of Mediterranean Monk Seal

Mediterranean Monk Seal

The Mediterranean monk seal is a pinniped belonging to the Phocidae family. At some 450-510 remaining individuals, it is believed to be the world's second-rarest pinniped , and one of the most endangered mammals in the world.It is present in parts of the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic...

s inhabit the beaches, and since 1990 the islands have been a nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 for their protection. Although in 1998 the colony numbered only eight, by today, the population numbers roughly twenty. The only human presence are the permanent wardens, geologists, occasional boaters, and the few research stations on the islands.

The islands of the Desertas are, listed from north to south, with approximate area figures:

Island	Area (km²)	Height (m)
Chão Islet Chão Islet The Ilhéu Chão is a small islet within the Desertas Islands, a small chain of islands which are in turn within the Madeira archipelago. Chão is located to the southeast of the Madeira island.-External links:*...	1	98
Deserta Grande Deserta Grande Island The Deserta Grande Island is the main island of the Desertas Islands, a small chain of islands in the archipelago of Madeira, located to the southeast of the island of Madeira. The island is a nature reserve with a manned base halfway along the western side...	10	442
Bugio Bugio Island Bugio Island is one of the Desertas Islands, a small chain of islands in the archipelago of Madeira, located to the southeast of the island of Madeira....	3	348
TOTAL	14.21	442

External links

• topographic map 1:250,000