Editing Plana Cays

{{Infobox islands
| name = Plana Cays
| image_name       = PlanaLakes2.jpg
| image_caption    = The western Plana Cay, looking northeast
| island_type = [[Cay]]
| location = [[Atlantic Ocean]]
| map = Bahamas
| map_caption = The location of Plana Cays within the Bahamas
| area_sqmi = 
| coordinates = {{coord|22.600|-73.573|type:isle_region:BS|display=title,inline}}
| archipelago = [[Lucayan Archipelago]]
| country = [[Bahamas]]
| population = 
| population_as_of = 
}}

The '''Plana Cays''' are a group of two small uninhabited islands in the southern [[Bahama Islands]], located east of [[Acklins|Acklins Island]] and west of [[Mayaguana|Mayaguana Island]]. The indigenous [[Lucayan people]] called the islands ''Amaguaya'', meaning "toward the middle lands".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahrens |first=Wolfgang P. |date=2015 |title=Naming the Bahamas Islands: History and Folk Etymology |url=https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/oc/article/view/14910 |journal=Onomastica Canadiana |language=en |volume=94 |issue=2 |pages=101 |issn=2816-7015}}</ref>

[[File:Acklins_and_Crooked_15ft_4p572_shaded.png|thumb|right|210px|Topographic map of Acklins Island and Crooked Island, with Plana Cays in the east (right).]]
The eastern cay was the last natural habitat of the [[Bahamian Hutia]], a species of [[rabbit]]-sized [[rodent]]. It was thought to be extinct until 1966, when a population was found on the Plana Cays by biologist Garrett Clough. Hutias have since been transplanted from the Plana Cays to other parts of the Bahamas.<ref name=FMNH>{{cite press release |url=https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/fmon-hfh012820.php |title=Hungry for hutia? Our taste for Bahamas' "most peaceable rodent" shaped its diversity |publisher=Florida Museum of Natural History |place=Gainesville, FL |website=eurekalert.org |date=2020-01-28 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The Plana Cays have been suggested as the [[Guanahani|first landfall of Christopher Columbus]] in the New World.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.dioi.org/vols/w41.pdf |first=Keith A. |last=Pickering |title=Columbus's Plana landfall: Evidence for the Plana Cays as Columbus's 'San&nbsp;Salvador' |journal=DIO – the International Journal of Scientific History |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=13–32 |date=August 1994 |accessdate=2009-03-16 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Updated Columbus Landfall |access-date=31 May 2018 |url=http://columbuslandfall.com/ccnav/plana.shtml |website=columbuslandfall.com}}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=September 2020}}

== References ==
{{reflist|25em}}

* {{cite web |last=Atrill |first=Rod |year=2000 |url=http://www.bahamaswildlife.fsnet.co.uk/southernislands.htm |title=The Southern Bahamas |website=www.bahamaswildlife.fsnet.co.uk |access-date=2005-02-20 |df=dmy-all}}

[[Category:Acklins]]
[[Category:Uninhabited islands of the Bahamas]]

{{Bahamas-geo-stub}}