The Deserta Grande Island is the main island of the Desertas Islands archipelago, a small chain of three islands in the Portuguese Madeira Islands Archipelago of Macaronesia.
It is located 23 kilometres (14 mi) southeast of Madeira Island, off the western coast of North Africa in the Atlantic Ocean.
The island is part of the Desertas Islands nature reserve, with a warden's base midway along the western coast.
South of the base, no approach to the island closer than 100 m is permitted in order to protect the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal breeding population. Access is permitted to the north of the nature base. [1] Some activities, such as line and spear fishing, are banned.
The large, critically endangered wolf spider Hogna ingens is endemic to Deserta Grande.
The island has breeding Cory's shearwaters, Bulwer's petrels and Madeiran storm-petrels.
The Madeiran land snails are endemic to the islands. They had not been observed for over a century, and was assumed to have vanished from their natural habitat in a windswept. However, during conservation expeditions conducted between 2012 and 2017, experts from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests rediscovered small populations of two snail species, each with fewer than 200 individuals. These snails were transferred to zoos in the UK and France. In 2024, more than 1300, of them where reintroducted to the island. [2]
Madeira, officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira, is an autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under 400 kilometres (250 mi) north of the Canary Islands —Spain—, 520 kilometres (320 mi) west of the Kingdom of Morocco and 805 kilometres (500 mi) southwest of mainland Portugal. Madeira sits on the African Tectonic Plate, although it is culturally, politically and ethnically associated with Europe, with its population predominantly descended from Portuguese settlers. Its population was 251,060 in 2021. The capital of Madeira is Funchal, on the main island's south coast.
Fea's petrel is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, Pterodroma. It was previously considered to be a subspecies of the soft-plumaged petrel, but they are actually not closely related at all. However, P. feae is very closely related to Zino's petrel and Desertas petrel, two other species recently split from P. mollis. The gadfly petrels are named for their speedy weaving flight, as if evading horseflies. The flight action is also reflected in the genus name Pterodroma, from Ancient Greek pteron, "wing" and dromos, " runner". This species is named after the Italian zoologist Leonardo Fea (1852-1903).
Zino's petrel or the freira, is a species of small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, endemic to the island of Madeira. This long-winged petrel has a grey back and wings, with a dark "W" marking across the wings, and a grey upper tail. The undersides of the wings are blackish apart from a triangle of white at the front edge near the body, and the belly is white with grey flanks. It is very similar in appearance to the slightly larger Fea's petrel, and separating these two Macaronesian species at sea is very challenging. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the soft-plumaged petrel, P. mollis, but they are not closely related, and Zino's was raised to the status of a species because of differences in morphology, calls, breeding behaviour and mitochondrial DNA. It is one of Europe's most endangered seabirds, with breeding areas restricted to a few ledges high in the central mountains of Madeira.
Bulwer's petrel is a small petrel in the family Procellariidae that is found in tropical and subtropical regions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is named after the English naturalist James Bulwer.
The Savage Islands or Selvagens Islands are a small Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, 280 kilometres (175 mi) south of Madeira and 165 kilometres (105 mi) north of the Canary Islands. The archipelago includes two major islands, Selvagem Grande and Selvagem Pequena, each surrounded by a cluster of islets and reefs, with the total area of 2.73 km2 (1.05 sq mi). The archipelago is administered as part of the Portuguese municipality of Funchal, belongs to the Madeiran civil parish of Sé, and is the southernmost point of Portugal.
The band-rumped storm petrel, Madeiran storm petrel, or Harcourt's storm petrel is of the storm petrel family Hydrobatidae.
The Desertas Islands are a small archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the larger Portuguese Madeira Archipelago.
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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 Madeira Island.
Plebecula anaglyptica is a species of land snail in the family Geomitridae.
Discula lyelliana is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Geomitridae.
Riccia atlantica is a rare species of liverwort in the family Ricciaceae. It is endemic to the Madeira archipelago and the Savage Islands in Portugal. Its natural habitat is rocky shores.
Madeiran land snail is a common name which has been given to several different species of terrestrial gastropods, air-breathing land snails:
The Desertas petrel is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus which breeds on Bugio Island in the Desertas off Madeira.
The Azores wood pigeon, Columba palumbus azorica is an endemic subspecies of the common wood pigeon, located in the Atlantic Azores islands of Portugal. This endemic subspecies is the only live pigeon present in the laurel forest habitat of the Azores Islands.
Hogna ingens, the Deserta Grande wolf spider, is a critically endangered spider species endemic to the Deserta Grande Island of the Madeira archipelago – specifically a remote valley, the Vale de Castanheira.
The Madeira evergreen forests is a laurissilva ecoregion of southwestern Europe. It covers the archipelago of Madeira and some nearby islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Laurel forest, known as Laurisilva of Madeira, once covered the islands. Over centuries the laurel forests were mostly cleared. Madeira's remaining forests are now protected.
Atlantica calathoides is a species of land snail belonging to the family Gastrodontidae.
 Municipalities of the Madeira Autonomous Region | ||
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| Porto Santo Island | ||
32°31′11″N16°30′27″W / 32.5197°N 16.5075°W
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