The wild islands are a natural sanctuary for fauna and flora unique in the world and this year celebrates its 40th anniversary.
The islands were classified as wild nature reserve on 29 October 1971, a title which had as main objective the preservation of one of the largest nesting areas for seabirds in the North Atlantic. Due to its inhospitable reinforced by lack of drinking water and by the dangerous shoals that threatened the craft since its discovery in the fifteenth century, there were few intentions to colonize these islands. However, there are some marks on Selvagem Grande and currently has a nucleus of permanently vigilant of nature to reside in the territory. Another curiosity is that one of the islets belong to the family Zino, Paul Alexander Zino was indeed a responsible also for the preservation of local fauna, initiated the first phase of ringing the Cagarras.
After its discovery one of the first ways to monetize this group of islands, since the settlement was difficult, was the collection of endemic plants for use in the dry cleaning industry and tanneries. The fern, a lichen that grows on the rock, was used in dyeing and paper due to his tone purple, it was exported to Flanders and England. The pastel, a glauca plant, was also widely used by garment trade, because of its leaf extract is a blue liquid, contrary to the name. Barilla, on the other hand, was one of the ingredients for making soap, a process involving the sun-drying of the plant, and then burnt and charred remains, after cooling, a hardening substance that appeared was called crude soda .
The area of the Wild islands has a wide variety of species of seabirds, as mentioned previously, most notably, the famous Cagarras whose colony is the most numerous in the territory, having already 13 600 couples. The Black souls, the Petrel and the storm-petrels also nest in large numbers, making these islands a bird sanctuary.
Now enough about birds and plants, let's talk about one of the biggest myths of the island, the immense treasure of Captain William Kidd, the Bold. Yes it is true, according to legend in the year of the Lord of 1690, this famous pirate of the seas, hided a part of his booty in jewels and Spanish gold doubloons in the many caves in this group of islands. Unfortunately, no one has found it and despite being a very interesting story, the fact is that if there was any trace of this magnificent treasure would've been found and claimed, since there were several expeditions over the centuries. Buried was not for sure due to the volcanic nature of this area would make the task almost impossible, but of course he would have "delegated" to someone and that effort will surely left over a few traces of the unfortunate! The name however stick, there is a cave known as Captain Kidd, at Selvagem Grande.
* Islands in Zarco
