Tyler+Santa+Cruz

Santa Cruz Island

Santa Cruz Island is wondrous in many ways. One of them is its physical appearance. It has giant sea caves, Sheer coastline cliffs, terrific tide pools and very large beaches. To me it looks like a duck that is flying over an ocean. A central valley splits the island along the Santa Cruz fault. The North part of the island is made of volcanic igneous rock and the south side is made of older sedimentary rock. Santa Cruz is the largest of all the Channel Islands. It is Over 96 square miles big. Although Santa Cruz’s appearance is astonishing its location will interest you even more. Santa Cruz Island has a magnificent location. It is located off the coast of California and has two neighboring islands. One of them is Anacapa Island and the other is Santa Rosa Island. Santa Rosa is 108 miles from santa cruz and 22 miles of the coast of Ventura. Even though Santa Cruz’s location is incredible its animal inhabitants will leave you dumbfounded. Santa Cruz has many Native and endemic animals. A few of them are the Island Fox, the Santa Cruz Island Scrub Jay and the Loggerhead Shrike. They are all pretty well known on Santa Cruz Island. The Island Fox is endemic to the Channel Islands and is endangered. They are a very small animal about the size of a house cat. They range from about 5 or 6 pounds. Santa Cruz does have many remarkable animals but the plants will surely shock you. The Santa Cruz Island Scrub Jay is a very unique bird. It lives only on Santa Cruz Island therefore making it endemic. It is different from its cousin the Western Scrub Jay because of its brighter plumage and genetic makeup. Since they only live on Santa Cruz Island they would be hugely threatened if anything happened to the island. The Loggerhead Shrike is a predatory songbird with strong and deadly sharp hooked beaks. They use these beaks for hunting animals like insects or small vertebrates, birds, and small reptiles. They live in grasslands, and other open habitats with scattered shrubs and trees, suitable perches, bare ground, and low or sparse herbaceous cover as primary habitat and breeding territories. Santa Cruz Island has many native and endemic plants. A couple of them are The Santa Cruz Island silver lotus (//Lotus argophyllus v. niveus//), The Santa Cruz Island bush mallow (//Malacothamnus fasciculatus v. nesioticus//), and The Santa Cruz Island Manzanita (//Arctostaphylos insularis//). The Santa Cruz Island silver lotus is in the pea family. It lives only on Santa Cruz Island and is endangered. It is yellow and grows in clumps of petals. It is abot the size of pea. It is truly a beautiful plant. The Santa Cruz Island bush mallow is in the mallow family. It is listed as an endangered plant and is endemic to Santa Cruz Island. It is pink and looks somewhat like a bowl in shape and size, except for the distinct lines of the petals. Santa Cruz Island is lucky to have a plant this magnificent. The Santa Cruz Island Manzanita is in the Heath family. It is Endenic to Santa Cruz Island and is known for their attractive bark. In spanish manzanita means little apple.