Monito Island is an uninhabited island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 about 5 kilometers northwest of much larger Mona Island

Mona, Puerto Rico

Mona is the third largest island of the archipelago of Puerto Rico, after the main island of Puerto Rico and Vieques. It is the largest of three islands located in the Mona Passage, a strait between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the others being Monito Island and Desecheo Island...

. Monito is the masculine diminutive

Diminutive

In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...

 form of Mona in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

. It is one of three islands in the Mona Passage

Mona Passage

The Mona Passage is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama Canal....

, and part of the Isla de Mona e Islote Monito barrio

Barrio

Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...

, a subdivision of the municipality of Mayagüez

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

Mayagüez is the eighth-largest municipality of Puerto Rico. Originally founded as "Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria" it is also known as "La Sultana del Oeste" , "Ciudad de las Aguas Puras" , or "Ciudad del Mangó"...

, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. It is inaccessible by sea, barren, reaches 65 m in height, and measures 0.147 km² (0.0566 sq mi, or 36.25 acres) in area.

Flora and fauna

The flora of Monito Island consists of 37 species, 36 genera, and 23 families; the largest families are Cactaceae, Poaceae

Poaceae

The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...

 and Malvaceae

Malvaceae

Malvaceae, or the mallow family, is a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Judd & al. Well known members of this family include okra, jute and cacao...

. The low number of species, less than 9% of the number for Mona Island, is due to several factors: Monito’s small size, less than 0.3% of the area of Mona; its low habitat diversity, in particular the absence of beach habitat, depression or bajuras, etc.; and a scarcity of exotic species. At the same time nesting birds, specially the Brown Booby

Brown Booby

The Brown Booby is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. The adult brown booby reaches about in length. Its head and upper body are covered in dark brown, with the remainder being a contrasting white. The juvenile form is gray-brown with darkening on the head, wings and tail...

, cause disturbance. The weedy taxa found are associated with openings among the shrubs where birds are nesting. The absence of readily dispersed species common in Mona’s plateau vegetation (orchids, for example) is notable.

The southern and western portions are relatively flat and the highest elevations are toward the northeast, with a maximum of 63 m near the northeastern corner. A north-south fissure extends through the lowlands on the south side. The island is covered by a low shrubby vegetation dominated by Capparis flexuosa with some small emergent trees of Ficus citrifolia, Pithecellobium unguis-cati, and Guapira discolor. The many sea birds nesting on the island no doubt contribute a good deal of nutrients to the plants.

The Monito Gecko

Monito Gecko

The Monito Gecko is a species of gecko endemic to the island of Monito, in the archipelago of Puerto Rico....

, an endangered species, is unique to the island.