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| Hawaiian
monk seal sleeping on beach |
Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge supports an abundant and diverse
fish and wildlife fauna:
- 15 resident seabird
species - nearly 2 million individual birds - that nest on virtually
every square foot of available habitat on Midway's three islands
- endangered Hawaiian
monk seals that pup and rear their young on Midway's beaches and
nearshore waters
- threatened green sea
turtles that haul out to rest on island shores
- a resident pod of
nearly 300 spinner dolphins that spend each day within Midway's
protected lagoon waters
- a complex community
of coral reef fishes and invertebrates
What the numbers
don't show is the unique manner in which Midway's wildlife, in particular
the diverse seabirds, have adapted to the presence of the human residents
and visitors. Whether its nesting albatross on your doorstep, white
terns on your windowsill or bonin petrels underneath your lawn...thousands
and thousands of birds, everywhere you turn.
Midway's wildlife landscape
paints an ever changing vista of sights and sounds. As the nesting
season of one species comes to a close, another begins in earnest.
Many of our human visitors return in different seasons, just to
experience the changing wildlife spectacle.
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