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Flores Island
Flores island (pronounced flôr ' es and is Portuguese for flower), is a large island inhabited by almost two million people and it belongs to the island nation of Indonesia . Indonesia , as a nation, is a vast collection of seventeen thousand oceanic islands. many of which are small volcanic islands that remain uninhabited and unnamed to this day. Yet the Indonesian islands are home to over 230 million people and is the fourth most populous country in the world. Flores, island, is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is heavily wooded, rugged, and mountainous, with peaks rising to 7,872 ft (2,399 m). Unlike Muslim Indoneisa, the Flores inhabitants are predominantly Christian, mainly Roman Catholic; those in the west are chiefly Malayans, and those in the east are Papuans. Corn and coconuts are grown as staples. Ende is the chief town and port with a population in excess of 50,000. The climate on Flores varies considerably due to the mountainous terrain and is subject to both drought and monsoons. Flores in now enjoying a bit of a tourist boom and can even boast of a four star hotel.
There are many languages spoken on the island of Flores , all of them belonging to the Austronesian family. There are at least six separate languages that are identifiable. These are from west to east: Ngadha, Nage, Keo, Ende, Lio and Palu'e , which is spoken on the island with the same name of the north coast of Flores . Locals would probably also add So'a and Bajawa to this list, which anthropologists have labeled dialects of Ngadha. Modern humans, Homo sapiens, have occupied the island for thousands of years. As for the western world, the island was originally discovered by the Portuguese and was named Flores . Much later under the rule of the princes of Sulawesi, Flores came under Dutch influence about the year 1618. The Dutch gradually gained control of the island, although Portugal held the eastern end until 1851 and the natives were not completely subjugated until 1907.
As to fauna the west coast of Flores is one of the few places, aside from the island of Komodo itself, where the Komodo dragon can be found in the wild. The Flores giant rat is also endemic to the Island . The rat's head and body length is 41–45 cm and tail length is 33–70 cm, making the Flores giant rat at least twice the size of an average Brown Rat ( Rattus norvegicus ). The rats has small, round ears, a chunky body and a small tail, and that the giant rat of Flores appears to be adapted for life on the ground and refuge in burrows. The rat has dense dark hair and subsists on a diet of leaves, buds, fruit, and certain kinds of insect. Their large size is seen as an important adaptation to their island home.
