Cocos Island

Just off the southern tip of Guam lies a tiny island called Cocos Island.  It's about 1.5km long and 200-300m wide (that's roughly a mile by 600-1000 feet).  Cocos isn't extraordinary on its own, but it has... BIRDS!

Black noddy.

Lots of black noddies.

White tern.

Kinda pretty.  I dunno, I'm not really a birder.

There are almost no birds on Guam because all the babies get eaten by the invasive brown tree snake.  But the snakes haven't made their way to Cocos yet--mainly because people take the brown tree snake problem very seriously--so there are lots of birds.  Perhaps too many birds, actually.  The main beach smells like poop and old fish.

View of Cocos from the ferry on the way over.

A baby bird that fell out of his nest.  We moved him underneath a tree full of birds, but he's probably gonna die anyway.  Sorry, baby bird.  :(

Cocos is mostly a tourist trap catering to Japanese families, but it's run-down and expensive.  I've seen the "Cocos Island Resort" advertised in Tumon (where all the tourists stay) and it's supposed to have a pool, volleyball court, cafe, restaurant/bar, ice cream shop, and watersports equipment rentals.  The word "resort" is a bit of a misnomer, seeing as you can't actually stay there overnight.  The pool and volleyball court are present but not exactly functional.  I didn't see a cafe or ice cream shop, but I did get a free buffet meal with my ferry ticket/entry fee ($25 for locals/$40 for tourists) and that was decent.

To give you an idea of the condition of the facilities, here's the pool... notice that it's half-full, littered with algae and dead toads, and that there are no lounge chairs around it.  Hmm.

Hmm, pretty sure this isn't open for use.

A toad desperately clings to the bloated corpse of another toad.  Very Titanic, don't you think?

The island "resort" advertises jet-skiing, parasailing, etc. for exorbitant prices, but we didn't do any of that.  We went to see birds and lizards, because we're biologists and we like that sort of thing.

Pretty!

Selfie with Guam!

Cocos Island is also home to a few Guam Rails, which I've talked about before.  These birds used to be common on Guam, but the brown tree snakes ate them all.  Now they're extinct on Guam except for a few kept in a captivity.  They've been reintroduced on Rota (a nearby island) and a few have been placed on Cocos.  We looked for them but sadly didn't see any.

We did, however, find some pretty cool lizards!  I spotted a good-sized monitor climbing up a tree, and I (carefully) got my hands on a few little skinks!

IT LOOKS LIKE A TINY VELOCIRAPTOR!

These guys have pretty neat little feet!  Their feet can suck onto stuff like tiny remora-shoes.  Cute!

Cute feet!

They were pretty chill lizards, easy to catch and quickly resigning themselves to their fate.

Not even trying to escape.

Just chillin'.

Eventually this little guy decided it was time to leave, and crawled up my arm before literally flinging himself away from me.  What a cutie!

Anybody who's ever caught a lizard probably knows that little skinks are kind of delicate.  Manhandle them too much and their tails will fall off.  I was very careful not to hurt them because they are awfully cute, and also because writing detached tails are gross.

But that isn't the only lizard on Cocos!  Look at all the other cool ones!

A wee tiny anole!

Anole and skink!

Pretty cute, aren't they?

Blue-tailed skink!

Hmm, not super sure what this is.  I think it's an anole?

I think this is the same as the last one?  I don't know, I'm a MARINE biologist!

There are ongoing efforts to prevent brown tree snakes from invading Cocos, which is why snake traps are abundant on the little island.  Unfortunately this poor mangrove monitor got stuck!

This is a mangrove monitor, locally known as a "hilitai" in Chamorro.

Sorry, buddy.

He's not getting out of there any time soon.  :(

The Cocos forest is pretty and flat.  I like flat places when I'm wearing flip-flops (aka "zories" on Guam).

Jungle path.

Jungle flower.

Other jungle flower.

Southernmost tip of Cocos Island.  This was not so fun in zories (flip flops).

We stumbled across a few WWII relics.  They appear to be engines but I don't know what they're from.

Near these old rusty relics you'll find an unused pier.  It seems to be in decent condition, but I'm not exactly an expert in maritime structural integrity.  

Pretty!

This poor hermit crab is using trash as his shell.  This is why it's so important to pick up your trash and not litter!

Poor mister hermit crab.  :(

I found this in the forest... empty.  Notice that hole in the side?  Something escaped... very Jurassic Park-esque, don't you agree?

I personally nominate Guam as the home of any future real-life Jurassic Park attempts.

We tried snorkeling here, but there was a strong current and not much happening in the water here--bummer.  I ended up getting bored and wandering into the forest without a timepiece, and we accidentally missed our ferry, which was 100% my fault.  We ended up catching the last one home.  It was just us and the staff on the ferry.  Whoops!

This pier is actually quite a bit nicer than the unused one.  Guess that's why they use this one instead?

I enjoyed Cocos and all its lizards and birds, but I don't think I could recommend it for tourists!  It's just not very nice or well-kept.  Sorry, Cocos.

Work has kept me busy lately, but don't worry, my job is awesome.  I get to go diving, can't complain about that!  I can, however, complain about the number of very heavy scuba tanks we have to bring on the boats...

Come back next week to hear about hashing, dolphins, and underwater earthquakes!!!

Cheers,
Ashton