|
Péninsule Loranchet
The Péninsule Loranchet, also known as Presqu'île Loranchet, (Loranchet Peninsula in English) is a peninsula of Grande Terre, the main island of the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands, Kerguelen archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean. Description The peninsula occupies the north-western corner of Grande Terre and is named after Jean Loranchet, the first officer of Raymond Rallier du Baty’s second Kerguelen survey expedition in 1913. It has a rugged, mountainous interior, with altitudes exceeding 500 m and a coastline of steep cliffs deeply incised by fjords. It is some 50 km long with a width of up to 20 km. As with most of Grande Terre, it is infested with introduced species, introduced feral cats, rats and rabbits. Human visitation is infrequent. Important Bird Area The northern end of the peninsula, and the northernmost part of Grande Terre, extending northwards from the head of the Baie de la Dauphine, has been identified as a 60 km2 Important Bird Area ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerguelen Topographic Map-fr
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most isolated places on Earth, with the closest territory being the Heard Island and McDonald Islands territory of Australia located at roughly , and the nearest inhabited territory being Madagascar at more than in distance. The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands, Île Amsterdam, Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul, Saint Paul islands, and France's Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean, are part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and are administered as a separate district. The islands constitute one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau (the other being Heard Island and the McDonald islands), a large igneous province mostly submerged in the southern Indian Ocean. The main island, Grande Terre, is in area, about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird Colony
A bird colony is a large congregation of individuals of one or more species of bird that nest or roost in proximity at a particular location. Many kinds of birds are known to congregate in groups of varying size; a congregation of nesting birds is called a breeding colony. Colonial nesting birds include seabirds such as auks and albatrosses; wetland species such as herons; and a few passerines such as weaverbirds, certain blackbirds, and some swallows. A group of birds congregating for rest is called a communal roost. Evidence of colonial nesting has been found in non- neornithine birds (Enantiornithes), in sediments from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Romania. Variations on colonial nesting in birds Approximately 13% of all bird species nest colonially. Nesting colonies are very common among seabirds on cliffs and islands. Nearly 95% of seabirds are colonial, leading to the usage, seabird colony, sometimes called a rookery. Many species of terns nest in colonies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Important Bird Areas Of Kerguelen
Importance is a property of entities that matter or make a difference. For example, World War II was an important event and Albert Einstein was an important person because of how they affected the world. There are disagreements in the academic literature about what type of difference is required. According to the causal impact view, something is important if it has a big causal impact on the world. This view is rejected by various theorists, who insist that an additional aspect is required: that the impact in question makes a value difference. This is often understood in terms of how the important thing affects the well-being of people. So in this view, World War II was important, not just because it brought about many wide-ranging changes but because these changes had severe negative impacts on the well-being of the people involved. The difference in question is usually understood counterfactually as the contrast between how the world is and how the world would have been withou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landforms Of The Kerguelen Islands
A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great oceanic basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, structure stratification, rock exposure, and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, cliffs, hills, mounds, peninsulas, ridges, rivers, valleys, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Elephant Seal
The southern elephant seal (''Mirounga leonina'') is one of two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets its name from its massive size and the large proboscis of the adult male, which is used to produce very loud roars, especially during the breeding season. A bull southern elephant seal is about 40% heavier than a male northern elephant seal (''Mirounga angustirostris''), which is nearly twice the weight of a male walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus''), or 6–7 times heavier than the largest living mostly terrestrial carnivorans, the Kodiak bear and the polar bear. Taxonomy The southern elephant seal was one of the many species originally described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae'', where it was given the binomial name of ''Phoca leonina''. John Edward Gray established the genus ''Mirou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antarctic Fur Seal
The Antarctic fur seal (''Arctocephalus gazella'') is one of eight seals in the genus '' Arctocephalus'', and one of nine fur seals in the subfamily Arctocephalinae. Despite what its name suggests, the Antarctic fur seal is mostly distributed in Subantarctic islands and its scientific name is thought to have come from the German vessel SMS Gazelle, which was the first to collect specimens of this species from the Kerguelen Islands. Taxonomy Antarctic fur seals are member of the genus ''Arctocephalus''. Recently, a proposal was made to reassign this species to the resurrected genus ''Arctophoca''. Antarctic fur seals may be confused with southern otariids that share their range, like Subantarctic (''A. tropicalis''), New Zealand (''A. forsteri''), and South American fur seals (''A. australis''), and the Juan Fernandez fur seal (''A. phillippii''), as well as the South American (''Otaria flavescens'') and New Zealand sea lions (''Phocarctos hookeri''). Genetic studies on populat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eaton's Pintail
Eaton's pintail (''Anas eatoni'') is a dabbling duck of the genus ''Anas''. It is also known as the southern pintail. The species is restricted to the island groups of Kerguelen and Crozet in the southern Indian Ocean. It resembles a small female northern pintail. It was named after the English explorer and naturalist Alfred Edwin Eaton. It is threatened by introduced species, particularly feral cats, which prey on it, particularly during the post-breeding molt, when it is unable to fly. Taxonomy While previously considered a subspecies of northern pintail, the Eaton’s pintail is much smaller (one female Eaton’s pintail weighed 450 g, while the mean mass of female northern pintails is 871 g) and the male Eaton's pintail is female-like in patterning, unlike the sexually dimorphic northern pintail.del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Eaton's Pintail (Anas eatoni), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerguelen Tern
The Kerguelen tern (''Sterna virgata'') is a tern of the southern hemisphere. This seabird mainly breeds colonially in the Kerguelen Islands, as its common name implies. However, smaller colonies are also found in the Prince Edward Islands (i.e. Prince Edward and Marion) and Crozet Islands. The total number of individuals is from 3,500 to 6,500 birds, although there is no recent data from the main colony at Kerguelen. These birds do not inhabit Kerguelen proper, instead nesting on islets free of feral cats. During bad weather, they are known to abandon their colonies. Kerguelen terns are among the least-ranging of all typical terns. They generally do not reach far into the seas near their breeding grounds. These birds eat fish and marine invertebrates, especially those found in beds of the seaweed Macrocystis spp. They sometimes also hunt insects on land and catch fish from rivers on Kerguelen. There are two subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classificatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light-mantled Albatross
The light-mantled albatross (''Phoebetria palpebrata'') also known as the grey-mantled albatross or the light-mantled sooty albatross, is a small albatross in the genus ''Phoebetria'', which it shares with the sooty albatross. The light-mantled albatross was first described as ''Phoebetria palpebrata'' by Johann Reinhold Forster, in 1785, based on a specimen from south of the Cape of Good Hope. Physiology Light-mantled albatrosses share some identifying features with other Procellariiformes. They have nasal tubes on the upper bill called naricorns, though with albatrosses these are on the sides of the upper mandible rather than the top. They also have a salt gland above the nasal passage which excretes a concentrated saline solution to maintain osmotic balance, due to the amount of seawater imbibed. The bills of the Procellariiformes are unique in that they are covered with from seven to nine horny plates. These birds produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglyceride ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerguelen Shag
The Kerguelen shag (''Leucocarbo verrucosus'') is a species of cormorant endemic to the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, one of the most isolated places on Earth. Many authorities consider it a subspecies of the imperial shag. Range and habitat This species nests on the coast of Grande Terre (the main island of the archipelago), on offshore islands, and on islands in the Golfe du Morbihan. It forages at sea throughout the archipelago, usually within of shore and especially in bays and inlets, though immatures have been seen rarely as far as . Reports from Heard Island and western Australia may be of ship-assisted birds. In the austral summer it feeds among kelp, sometimes at the bottom. Description The Kerguelen shag is long with a wingspan of , making it the smallest blue-eyed shag. The adult's upperparts, tail, and thighs are metallic greenish black; the underbody to the throat is white; and the wing linings are brown. Some individuals have white patches on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Petrel
The pintado petrel (''Daption capense''), also called the Cape petrel, or Cape fulmar, is a common seabird of the Southern Ocean from the family Procellariidae. It is the only member of the genus ''Daption'', and is allied to the fulmarine petrels and the giant petrels. It is an abundant seabird, with an estimated population of around 2 million. Taxonomy The pintado petrel was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Procellaria capensis''. Linnaeus cited the "white and black spotted peteril" that had been described and illustrated in 1747 by the English naturalist George Edwards in the second volume of his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. The pintado petrel is now the only species placed in the genus ''Daption'', introduced in 1826 by English naturalist James Francis Stephens. The genus name ''Daption'' is an anagram of the Portuguese name "Pintado" which was given to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-browed Albatross
The black-browed albatross (''Thalassarche melanophris''), also known as the black-browed mollymawk,Robertson, C. J. R. (2003) is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family. Taxonomy Mollymawks are albatrosses in the family Diomedeidae and order Procellariiformes, which also includes shearwaters, fulmars, storm petrels, and diving petrels. These birds share certain identifying features. They have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns, although the nostrils on the albatross are on the sides of the bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine horny plates. They produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as being an energy-rich food source for chicks and also for the adults during their long flights. The albatross also has a salt gland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
