Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), walking

The Donskiye Islands form a small archipelago, including Warriner Island and Redfearn Island, off

Breidnes Peninsula Breidnes Peninsula () is a rocky peninsula, long and wide, between Ellis Fjord and Langnes Fjord in the Vestfold Hills. It was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from air photos taken by the Lars Christensen Expedition Lars is a common male name ...

in the Vestfold Hills of Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica.

Discovery and naming

The islands were mapped from aerial photographs taken by the Lars Christensen Expedition (1936–37) and called ''Mulvikholmane'' (Mule Bay Islets) by Norwegian cartographers. They were photographed by the

USN The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

’s

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The opera ...

in 1946–47, the Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1956, and

ANARE The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE ) is the historical name for the Australia: Antarctic Program#Australian Antarctic program, Australian Antarctic Program (AAp) administered for Australia by the Australian Antarctic D ...

in 1957 and 1958. They were named ''Ostrova Donskiye'' (Don Islands) by the Soviet Expedition.

Important Bird Area

A 20 ha site, comprising a small unnamed island situated 500 m west of Redfearn Island in the Donskiye group, has been designated 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) 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 ...

because it supports a breeding colony of about 21,000 pairs of

Adélie penguin The Adélie penguin (''Pygoscelis adeliae'') is a species of penguin common along the entire coast of the Antarctic continent, which is the only place where it is found. It is the most widespread penguin species, and, along with the emperor p ...

s, estimated from 2012 satellite imagery. The nearest permanent research station is Australia's

Davis Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gre ...

, 6 km to the north-east on Breidnes Peninsula.

References

Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Penguin colonies Islands of Princess Elizabeth Land {{PrincessElizabethLand-geo-stub