Mehazelo - Cinderella of Soqotra - The real folk tales by Vladimir Agafonov

For those who are not yet acquainted with this story, do check it out!

Thanks to the efforts of Vladimir Agafonov, translated tales got published in Russian in 1995, 1996 and 1997 in editions for children.

What many people not know, as Vladimir told me himself, is that it first published in a monthly illustrated newspaper in Moscow, and its illustrations editor choose Victor Duvidov's illustrations. Later Victor became very famous for his illustrations for the Russian translations of Rudyard Kipling's tales from the Jungle Book.

So, in fact Victor Duvidov was the first illustrator in the world to have illustrated Socotran folk tales!

Thanks for sharing Vladimir.


You can find it almost everywhere on the internet, the most known way.

The first vertebrate fossil from Socotra Island (Yemen) is an early Holocene Egyptian fruit bat

Hoq cave revealed a bat fossil covered in calcite years ago, in the meantime we know more and can finally share the today published article with all of you!

Kay Van Damme, Petr Benda, Dirk Van Damme, PeterDe Geest & Irka Hajdas (2018) The first vertebrate fossil from SocotraIsland (Yemen) is an early Holocene Egyptian fruit bat, Journal of NaturalHistory, 52:31-32, 2001-2024

The Yemeni island Socotra's unique environment is at risk from the conflict in the country.

From the BBC:

The Yemeni island Socotra's unique environment is at risk from the conflict in the country.

Some positive news from Socotra and community effort in eradicating one of the invasive species...

Thanks to Dr. K. Van Damme this news:

Some positive news from Socotra and community effort in eradicating one of the invasive species, appeared today, for your interest.

A record of Notostraca on Socotra Island and the importance of local conservation of the habitat

After the cave shrimps, now another article from Dr. K. Van Damme.

During the exploration and inventory of an archaeological site at the northern plain of the island (Eriosh), Kay discovered a triops on the island!

All details of the article to be found here: https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4446.4.8

A new stygobiont species of Halocaridinides Fujino & Shokita, 1975 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Caridea, Atyidae) from caves on Socotra Island (Yemen), with notes on the genus

After some time...

Proud to show that cave exploration with a team scientist ultimately leads to more knowledge than one would expect.

Thanks to our SKP biologist, Dr. K. Van Damme a new article:
https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4442.2.3

Information and Advice for Visitors and Tourists

Recently FOS published their "Information and Advice for Visitors and Tourists".

You can download it though their website or with the direct link below

English version

Arabic version