Lobos Island

Lobos is a small island of the Canary Islands (Spain) located just 2km north of the island of Fuerteventura. Politically it belongs to the municipality of La Oliva on the island of Fuerteventura. It has an area of 4.68km2. It has been a nature reserve (Parque Natural del Islote de Lobos) since 1982.The island is accessible to tourists via a short ferry ride from Corralejo, in the north of Fuerteventura. It has day facilities and weekend homes of local fishermen. At the northeastern end of the island is the Punta Martiño Lighthouse, the lighthouse keeper and his family were the last permanent inhabitants of Lobos, until the light was automated in the 1960s.In 1405, Lobos Island served as resupply base for Jean de Béthencourt's conquest of Fuerteventura.Origin of nameLobos Island was named for the large number of sea wolves, also called monk seals, that once lived there. The monk seals were the island's only inhabitants when it was discovered by the Spanish conquerors of the Canaries archipelago in the fifteenth century, but with the arrival of man, these animals were hunted on a massive scale by sailors and fishermen who saw them as a source of food, fat and skin. As a result of this hunting, the species eventually became extinct on the island and its presence now is only occasional.