Socotra in Sicilia - FoS 18th International Conference and AGM -26th / 29th September 2019 Palermo Italy

Socotra is changing fast these days...

Therefore this year, the title of the next International Conference is "Socotra's pursuit of stability through heritage, conservation and sustainability".

All further details to be found on this brand new website: http://www.socotrainsicilia.it/

The 17th Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Soqotra and Symposium was held on 25 - 28 October, organised and hosted by the ARC-WH in Bahrain. Thanks to the organisers!

It was wonderful to see so many FoS again, this time with a lot of Soqotri attending and for the first time overseas in Bahrain.

The abstract book can be downloaded here, while the minutes of the AGM are available here.

Next year will be on an island more nearby, Sicily (Italy).

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