Beatrice Islet Conservation Park is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

occupying the

Beatrice Islets Beatrice Islets are pair of islets in the Australian state of South Australia located in Nepean Bay on the north coast of Kangaroo Island about east of Kingscote. The islets and adjoining intertidal areas are notable as habitat for bird li ...

and adjoining

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...

areas in

Nepean Bay Nepean Bay is a bay located on the north-east coast of Kangaroo Island in the Australian state of South Australia about south-south-west of Adelaide. It was named by the British navigator, Matthew Flinders, after Sir Evan Nepean on 21 March 1 ...

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It is located about east of the town of Kingscote. It was dedicated in 1967 for 'conservation of wildlife habitat' replacing previous statutory protection dating back to 1909. A management philosophy for the conservation park published in 1987 supports the use of the park as a 'feeding and roosting habitat for

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s'. The conservation park which is about in size, occupies part of a sandspit extending from Cape Rouge to the immediate north of Kingscote. The Beatrice Islets which originally supported bushes of

African boxthorn ''Lycium ferocissimum'', the African boxthorn or boxthorn, is a shrub in the nightshade family ( Solanaceae). The species is native to the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Free State provinces in South Africa and has become naturalised in Aus ...

which, when cleared in either the 1960s or the 1970s, resulted in erosion and destabilisation of both islets to the extent that both were described as being 'a

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

/cocklebed' which is submerged at high water. The conservation park is classified as an

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Category Ia protected area.

References

External links

Beatrice Islet Conservation Park webpage on protected planet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatrice Islet Conservation Park Protected areas of Kangaroo Island Conservation parks of South Australia South Australian terrestrial protected areas with a marine zone Protected areas established in 1967 1967 establishments in Australia