by Europeans (Jones 2001) but conceivably were introduced by Polynesian seafarers a longer time ago. New Zealander Tom Neale lived alone on Suwarrow for a total of 16 years in three periods between 1952 and 1977. He described his experience in the first two of those periods in An Island to Oneself (1966 ). In 1964, while Neale was in Rarotonga, June von Donop, a former accountant from Honolulu, Hawaii, lived alone in his house on Suwarrow for a week, while her crewmates on the schooner Europe stayed on board their vessel. Michael Swift lived alone on Suwarrow in 1965–66, but he was not familiar with survival techniques and had a hard time finding sufficient food. In 1978, the island was declared a National Park of the Cook Islands due to the plentiful marine and bird wild life it supports. The island and surrounding water is Crown land. A proposal to establish an aquaculture operation to farm Tahitian pearls was successfully opposed by Cook Islands environmental NGO, the Taporoporo'anga Ipukarea Society. In October 2011, Russian politician Anton Bakov claimed to have purchased the atoll and declared it the capital of a new Russian Empire. The claim was denied by Prime Minister Henry Puna. Flora and fauna Most of the small islets have only herbs and shrubs, with Pemphis acidula and beach heliotrope (Tournefortia argentea) growing in abundance. The larger islands have a dense interior vegetation of Cordia subcordata (tou); indeed, the westernmost island, Motu Tou is named after this woodland (Jones 2001). At the end of the 20th century, 3% of all red-tailed tropicbirds in the world (some 400) bred there, as well as 9% of the global population of the lesser frigatebird (about 8500, though only a part of these seem to be present at any one time) (Jones 2001). The atoll has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports, as well as the tropicbirds and frigatebirds, a large breeding colony of sooty terns, with over 40,000 chicks counted in 2008. It is also a non-breeding site for bristle-thighed curlews. Suwarrow has a rich marine biodiversity, which supports megafauna such as sea turtles, sharks, mantas, and cetaceans including humpback, sperm, and false killer whales. Demographics Every five years, the Cook Islands government advertises for the Suwarrow island nature reserve caretaker position. The position is staffed between April and October by two persons. The