The Canary Islands, also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the Atlantic Ocean. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are 100 kilometres west of Morocco and the Western Sahara. They are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The islands have a population of 2.2 million people and are the most populous special territory of the European Union.
The Province of Las Palmas is a province of Spain, consisting of the eastern part of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, capital city of this province and of the island of Gran Canaria, is the largest city in the Canary Islands.
The Guanche were the indigenous inhabitants of the Spanish Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 kilometres (60 mi) to the west of modern Morocco and the North African coast. The islanders spoke the Guanche language, which is believed to have been related to the Berber languages of mainland North Africa; the language became extinct in the 17th century, soon after the islands were colonized.
The Canary Islands stonechat, also known as the Fuerteventura stonechat or Fuerteventura chat, and formerly known as the Canary Islands chat due to its once widespread distribution on the Canary Islands, is a sedentary resident bird found only on the island of Fuerteventura where it is known as the Caldereta.
The Eurasian blue tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.
Lanzarote is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, 125 kilometres off the north coast of Africa and 1,000 kilometres from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.92 square kilometres, Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 158,798 inhabitants at the start of 2023, it is the third most populous Canary Island, after Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Located in the centre-west of the island is Timanfaya National Park, one of its main attractions. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1993. The island's capital is Arrecife, which lies on the eastern coastline. It is the smaller main island of the Province of Las Palmas.
The genus Gallotia are the lacertids of the Canary Islands. This genus consists of a group that has been evolving there ever since the first islands emerged from the sea over 20 million years ago. The endemic species and subspecies of this group have a number of characteristics that make them quite special within their family (Lacertidae); their only close relatives are the sandrunner lizards (Psammodromus) of the western Mediterranean region. Gallotia are characteristic for eating significant quantities of plants, and several lineages are often presented as classic examples for insular gigantism. However, a find of an even larger Gallotia species from the early Miocene of mainland Europe casts doubt on this assumption. Instead the ancestor of all modern Gallotia species of the Canary islands was probably already very large but carnivorous.
A cabildo insular is the government and administration institution of each of the seven major islands in the Canary Islands archipelago: Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. The island of La Graciosa falls under the jurisdiction of the cabildo of Lanzarote.
The Canary Islands oystercatcher, Canarian oystercatcher, or Canarian black oystercatcher , was a shorebird of uncertain taxonomy endemic to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and their offshore islets in the Canary Islands in Spain. It is now considered to be extinct.
The Canary Islands have been known since antiquity. Until the Spanish colonization between 1402 and 1496, the Canaries were populated by an indigenous population, whose origin was Amazigh from North Africa.
Canariomys is an extinct genus of rodents that once existed on the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, part of the Canary Islands, Spain. These giant rats could reach a weight of about 1 kg (2.2 lb). They were herbivores; their diet was based on plant materials, probably soft vegetables such as roots, ferns, and berries, but not grass. C. tamarani were considered herbivores, eating everything plant-like except grass with good digging skills. While C. bravoi were considered as a rat character, because of its large size, with an omnivorous diet with good climbing skills. They were one of two groups of rodents native to the archipelago, alongside the lava mouse, which was native to Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
Tourism is an essential part of the economy of the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago located in the Atlantic Ocean, 100 kilometres west of Morocco. Seven main islands and six islets make up the Canary Islands. They had 16 million visitors in 2023. Tourists seeking sunshine and beaches first began to visit the Canaries in large numbers in the 1960s. The Canary Islands are a leading European tourist destination with very attractive natural and cultural resources.
Canary Fly, S.L., doing business as Canaryfly, is a Spanish airline that operates regular flights between the Canary Islands.
The Eurasian blue tit is a species of bird.
The Tenerife giant tortoise is an extinct species of cryptodire turtle in the family Testudinidae endemic to the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands during the Middle Pleistocene.
The Gran Canaria giant tortoise is an extinct species of cryptodire turtle in the family Testudinidae endemic to the island of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands.
As in the rest of Spain, the majority religion in the Canary Islands is the Catholic Church. The Catholic religion has been the majority since the Conquest of the Canary Islands in the fifteenth century. This religion would largely replace the Canarian aboriginal religion through the prohibition of the latter and syncretism. According to a survey conducted in 2019, Canary Islands is the fifth autonomous community in Spain with the highest percentage of people who declare themselves to be Catholics after the Region of Murcia, Extremadura, Galicia, Aragon, and Castile and León. 76.7% of the population is Catholic.
The geology of the Canary Islands is dominated by volcanic rock. The Canary Islands and some seamounts to the north-east form the Canary Volcanic Province, whose volcanic history started about 70 million years ago. The Canary Islands region is still volcanically active. The most recent volcanic eruption on land occurred in 2021 and the most recent underwater eruption was in 2011-12.
The Canary Islands dry woodlands and forests is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in the Canary Islands. It encompasses the western group of the Canary Islands – La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria – in the Atlantic Ocean. These volcanic islands are an autonomous community of Spain, and lie southwest of the Spanish mainland and west of the North African coast.
