As wastelands go, it is the wasteland to end them all, with weird coral monoliths punching their way out of cavernous pits, totally bereft of topsoil and baked hard under the equatorial sun.
Nothing stirs except dust and packs of wild dogs.
The rocks heat up and create their own microclimate, dispelling rain clouds and exacerbating the island's chronic water shortage. Many migrating species of birds drop in to roost on Nauru, seasonally swelling the local population by thousands, although it would take another few million years to rebuild the deposits of guano that have been mined in one century. Most local species of birds are under immense pressure since the wasting of the island's ecology. An indigenous nightingale reed warbler is also known as the Nauru canary, and islanders often keep the local frigatebird, Nauru's national symbol, as a caged pet. There are no native mammals, but rats, cats and mice have inevitably followed the Europeans and taken up residence.