Zanzibar the sheltered harbor located on the site of present-day Zanzibar City. The clove, originating from the Moluccan Islands (today in Indonesia), was introduced in Zanzibar by the Omani sultans in the first half of the 19th century. Zanzibar, mainly Pemba Island, was once the world's leading clove producer, but annual clove sales have plummeted by 80 percent since the 1970s. Zanzibar's clove industry has been crippled by a fast-moving global market, international competition, and a hangover from Tanzania's failed experiment with socialism in the 1960s and 1970s, when the government controlled clove prices and exports. Zanzibar now ranks a distant
Wildlife of Zanzibar mango. Along with small animals, Zanzibar is known for several oversized species, such as the giant rat ("Cricetomys gambianus cosensi") which can be up to a metre (3 ft) long with the tail. Dugong, internationally endangered species still occur in the region. Birds found in Zanzibar including Pemba Island and Mafia Island (not governed by the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar), are about 240 species of which: globally threatened species are four, introduced species is one and Endemics are species are eight. The genera of the birds and some of the details of extirpated, introduced, vulnerable and threatened spices are given