Cuvier Island is a small uninhabited

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

off the east coast of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It lies on the seaward end of the

Colville Channel The Colville Channel is one of three channels connecting the Hauraki Gulf with the Pacific Ocean to the northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It is the easternmost channel, lying between the southern end of Great Barrier Island and Cape Colville a ...

, north of the

Mercury Islands The Mercury Islands are a group of seven islands off the northeast coast of New Zealand's North Island. They are located off the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, and northeast of the town of Whitianga. History The Ngāti Karaua (a hapu of ...

and approximately south-east of

Great Barrier Island Great Barrier Island ( mi, Aotea) lies in the outer Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, north-east of central Auckland. With an area of it is the sixth-largest island of New Zealand and fourth-largest in the main chain. Its highest point, Mount Hobson ...

. The island is a

wildlife sanctuary A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

, managed by the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

and is the subject of an ongoing

island restoration The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic species, as well as ...

project to eliminate non-native mammals and restore the original ecosystem. At one time in the 1920s the wife of the Lighthouse Keeper was the nominated Protector of Tuatara Lizards which were found in numbers at the rear of the hous
Cuvier Island restoration
(from the Department of Conservation website) It is also the location of the

Cuvier Island Lighthouse Cuvier Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Cuvier Island, a small island off the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand.

which was constructed in 1889 and the wreck of the old ''

HMNZS Philomel HMNZS ''Philomel'' is the main administrative naval base of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Originally a training base on board the cruiser it takes its name from, it is part of the Devonport Naval Base in North Shore City, Auckland, New Zealand. His ...

'' which was scuttled near the island on 6 August 1949 after decommissioning and being stripped of useful equipment.

Geology

The island is the remains of an

igneous intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

of the Coromandel Volcanic Zone, which formed during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

between 17 and 16 million years ago.

Important Bird Area

The island has been identified 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 ...

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 ...

because of its small breeding colony of vulnerable

Pycroft's petrel Pycroft's petrel (''Pterodroma pycrofti'') is a species of seabird in the petrel and shearwater family Procellariidae. Origin The Pycroft's petrel is a species of gadfly petrel (genus '' Pterodroma''), and is thought to be closely related to th ...

Name

The Māori name of the island is Repanga. The name Cuvier was given by D'Urville, naming it after

Baron Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...

.New Zealand Lighthouses - Cuvier
- named by D'Urville

References

External links

{{coord, 36, 26, S, 175, 46, E, display=title, region:NZ_type:isle_source:GNS-enwiki Island restoration Important Bird Areas of New Zealand Islands of Waikato Protected areas of Waikato Uninhabited islands of New Zealand

Geology

Important Bird Area

Name

See also

References

External links