Wildlife of Zanzibar Wildlife of Zanzibar The wildlife of Zanzibar consists of terrestrial and marine flora and fauna in the archipelago of Zanzibar, an autonomous region of Tanzania. Its floral vegetation is categorized among the coastal forests of eastern Africa as the Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic and the Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic. Its faunal species are mostly small animals, birds, and butterflies. The main island of Zanzibar, Unguja, has fauna which reflects its connection to the African mainland during the last ice age. The Zanzibar leopard, an endemic subspecies of the island that may now be extinct, is conjectured to have
History of Zanzibar Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and kept it for nearly 200 years. In 1698, Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and cash crops, with a ruling Arab elite and a Bantu general population. Plantations were developed to grow spices; hence, the moniker of the Spice Islands (a name also used of Dutch colony the Moluccas, now part of Indonesia). Another major trade good was ivory, the tusks of elephants that were killed on the Tanganyika mainland - a practice that is still in