Carcass Island ( es, Isla del Rosario) is the largest of the West Point Island Group of the Falkland Islands.

Description

It lies north-west of West Falkland and south-east of the Jason Islands. It is in length, has a maximum width of , and is in area.PART II: Falkland Islands Important Bird Areas
. The source uses metric units. The highest points of the island are Stanley Hill and Mount Byng at . The north-eastern coast has cliffs and slopes while there are large sand bays and a tidal rocky point to the north-west. There are also stretches of duneland. Leopard Beach is often used as a landing point.

History

The island's grim-sounding name comes from the ship HMS ''Carcass'', which surveyed the island in 1766. Its accompanying vessel, HMS ''Jason'', gave its name to the nearby Jason Islands, and its captain, John MacBride, gave his name to

MacBride Head MacBride (or Macbride) Head is the most northeasterly point of the Falkland Islands, and is on East Falkland. Mount MacBride is just to its south. There is a sea lion colony here. It takes its name from Capt. John MacBride, the man credited wi ...

. It has been run as a sheep farm for over a century and is owned by R. P. McGill. The island's three heritage-listed buildings are a boathouse, shed, and store. Its small settlement lying on Port Patterson on the southwest coast is also known for its gardens and has a small grocery shop. Carcass Island was considered as one of the potential sites for a British amphibious landing during the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

;Bicheno, Hugh (2006) ''Razor's Edge: The Unofficial History of the Falklands War''. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. however, the British landings took place on San Carlos Water in the west of East Falkland, on Falkland Sound. The plan would have been for a " stone aircraft carrier". The main objections to this plan were threefold: 1) Carcass Island, being in the west of the archipelago, was nearest to continental Argentine bases; 2) its proximity to the airbase on Pebble Island; and 3) its remoteness from Stanley, as it was furthest from the main objectives, and West Falkland was ultimately bypassed in the war.

Flora and fauna

Though the island has been a sheep farm for more than a century, careful management has preserved its varied habitat and mature tussac grows in replanted coastal paddocks. The island contains one of the few substantial stands of trees in the Falklands. There is however, a true wood at Hill Cove. None of the species are endemic, but they include such exoticisms as Monterey cypress trees, and New Zealand cabbage palms. The night herons nest within these trees. The gardens also include other introduced plants such as fuchsias,

lupin ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...

s, and

dog rose ''Rosa canina'', commonly known as the dog rose, is a variable climbing, wild rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia. Description The dog rose is a deciduous shrub normally ranging in height from , though sometimes it ...

s.Wigglesworth, Angela. (1992) ''Falkland People''. Pub. Peter Owen. The island has no

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

s or cats, and as a result has a wide variety of birdlife including

black-crowned night heron The black-crowned night heron (''Nycticorax nycticorax''), or black-capped night heron, commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and N ...

s, known in the Falkland Islands as "quarks", as well as

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

and

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

s. The several substantial freshwater ponds are important waterfowl sites. The West Point Island group, which includes Carcass Island, 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). Birds for which the site is of conservation significance include Falkland steamer ducks, ruddy-headed geese, gentoo penguins, southern rockhopper penguins, Magellanic penguins, black-browed albatrosses, striated caracaras, blackish cinclodes, Cobb's wrens and white-bridled finches.

References

* Stonehouse, B (ed.) ''Encyclopedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans'' (2002, )

External links

*
Carcass Island
* http://www.ladatco.com/fk-crs.htm

{{Falkland Islands topics, state=collapsed Islands of the Falkland Islands Important Bird Areas of the Falkland Islands Seabird colonies Penguin colonies