Île Howe is one of the islands of the

Kerguelen The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a archipelago, group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the ...

archipelago, situated to the north of

Île Foch Île Foch is one of the Kerguelen Islands situated near to the north coast of Grande Terre, the principal island. It is separated from this main island by a narrow sea arm, the Tucker strait. It borders Île Saint-Lanne Gramont at the northwes ...

, just after Île MacMurdo. It is about 8 km in length. Apart from

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

s, it is free of

introduced animals An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

Important Bird Area

The island, along with the neighbouring, and relatively large, islands of

and

Île Saint-Lanne Gramont Île Saint-Lanne Gramont is an uninhabited island, the fourth largest island in the Kerguelen Islands, situated to the north of Presqu'île de la Société de Géographie, with an area of 45.8 km2. It reaches 480 m at its highest point ...

, as well as the smaller Île MacMurdo, Île Briand, Îles Dayman and Îlots Hallet, has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because of its value as a breeding site, especially for

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s, with at least 29 species nesting in the IBA.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Île Foch, Île Sainte Lanne Gramont and Île Howe. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-21.

References

Geoportail - Carte des îles Kerguelen

Tableau général de la France outre-mer - Maison de la Géographie

Howe Howe may refer to: People and fictional characters * Howe (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters * Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo (1788–1845), Irish peer and colonial governor Titles * Earl Howe, two titles, an ext ...

Important Bird Areas of Kerguelen {{FrenchSouthernTerritories-geo-stub