Lively Island ( es, Isla Bougainville) is the largest of the Lively Island Group of the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

, The island group lies east of

East Falkland East Falkland ( es, Isla Soledad) is the largest island of the Falklands in the South Atlantic, having an area of or 54% of the total area of the Falklands. The island consists of two main land masses, of which the more southerly is known as La ...

. Lively Island is the largest rat-free island in the Falklands, hence its importance to birdlife. The island also has a

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

History

The Spanish name, "Isla Bougainville" (like

Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's e ...

) is named after the French navigator

Louis de Bougainville Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville (, , ; 12 November 1729 – August 1811) was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he took part in the Seven Years' War in North America and the American Revoluti ...

who established the first settlement in the archipelago in the 1760s. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the island was owned by George Cobb. It was sold after World War I to pay taxes. In the Falklands War the Battle of Seal Cove took place near Lively Island. Seal Cove is a bay in East Falkland directly to the west of the island.

Description

Lively Island has an area of . Its highest point is . There are several streams and ponds, the largest of which is Enderby Pond, , an important waterfowl site. Lively is rat-free but with a century and a half of grazing little

tussac grass ''Poa flabellata'', commonly known as tussac grass or just tussac, is a tussock grass native to southern South America, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and other islands in the South Atlantic. There are also two isolated records from the her ...

remains and there are many large patches of eroded ground. Lively Island is surrounded by other, smaller islands and islets in the Lively Island group. Some of these Islets are linked to Lively Island by sandbars. North East Island which is just off the coast of Lively, was the site of a rat eradication programme in 2003. (The rest of the Lively islands are rat free.)

Important Bird Area

The Lively Island group has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area. Birds for which the site is of conservation significance include

Falkland steamer duck The Falkland steamer duck (''Tachyeres brachypterus'') is a species of flightless duck found on the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. The steamer ducks get their name from their unconventional swimming behaviour in which they flap the ...

s, ruddy-headed geese,

gentoo penguin The gentoo penguin ( ) (''Pygoscelis papua'') is a penguin species (or possibly a species complex) in the genus ''Pygoscelis'', most closely related to the Adélie penguin (''P. adeliae'') and the chinstrap penguin (''P. antarcticus''). The ea ...

s (650 breeding pairs),

Magellanic penguin The Magellanic penguin (''Spheniscus magellanicus'') is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Patagonia, including Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands, with some migrating to Brazil and Uruguay, where they are occasionally seen a ...

s, southern giant petrels (40 pairs),

white-bridled finch The white-bridled finch (''Melanodera melanodera''), also known as the canary-winged finch or black-throated finch, is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus '' Melanodera'' together with the yellow-bridled finch (''M. xanthogramma''). Fo ...

es,

blackish cinclodes The blackish cinclodes (''Cinclodes antarcticus'') is a passerine bird of the genus ''Cinclodes'' belonging to the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is native to the southern tip of South America including the Falkland Islands where it is known as ...

and

Cobb's wren Cobb's wren (''Troglodytes cobbi'') is a fairly small (12-13.5 cm) wren which is endemic to the Falkland Islands. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the house wren (''Troglodytes aedon'') but is now commonly considered to be a sep ...

References

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

External links

*
Instagram page of Lively Island
- includes information and pictures about farming on Lively's and wildlife {{Falkland Islands topics, state=collapsed Islands of the Falkland Islands Important Bird Areas of the Falkland Islands Seabird colonies Penguin colonies