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The further east you travel across the Pacific Ocean the less the diversity of animal life. Samoa is almost two thousand miles from the nearest major landmass, New Zealand and Fiji is almost a thousand miles to the east. It is not surprising then that there are two genera of indigenous land based mammal, bats and rats and it is not clear if the rats accompanied the earliest human visitors.
One of the species of bat, a flying fox, is unique to Samoa whilst the other is only found around Polynesia.
There is a wider range of reptiles although the only snake, the non-venomous Pacific boa is now very rare and only found in a few parts of Savai'i. The gheko, or bili as it is called in Samoan is ubiquitous in and around Samoan houses. When you first arrive you might think you can hear nesting birds chirping in the rafters, it is actually the bili. If you spend anytime walking through encounter both the black and the brown skinks either in the debris on the forest floor or scurrying up tree trunks.
There are several species of frogs and toads.....
There are more species of bird than there are other vertebrates combined.
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