Islands Facts

There's an island in the Bahamas called Big Major Cay (or Pig Beach), which is only inhabited by swimming pigs.

There is an island near Italy that was the site of wars, a dumping ground for plague victims, and an insane asylum. It's considered so dangerously haunted that the Italian government does not allow public access.

Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, was left stranded on a deserted island in 1704, but survived for over 4 years, partly by using feral cats to protect him from ravenous rats that attacked during the night.

The Tree Lobster, once thought to be extinct, is an insect that can grow to the size of a human hand, and it can only be found on a small island of rock that is Ball's Pyramid, Australia.

The Sentinelese are a people who live on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean called North Sentinel Island. For thousands of years, they have refused all contact with the outside world. Using only stones and arrows, they have successfully repelled all invaders and remain one of the last uncontacted tribes in the world.

In 1978, Richard Branson tried to impress his girlfriend by pretending to buy a Caribbean island listed at $6 million. He jokingly offered $100,000 and was thrown off the island — but a year later, with no other buyers, the desperate owner accepted just $180,000.

There is a real island in the Arabian Sea that looks like another planet. Socotra split from the supercontinent Gondwana about 20 million years ago and drifted into isolation, so its life evolved on its own. Of its 825 plant species, around a third grow nowhere else on Earth - including the dragon blood tree, whose mushroom-shaped canopy bleeds red resin. National Geographic calls it the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.