Île des Pingouins, or Penguin Island, is an uninhabited island in the

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a physiographic region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46th parallel south, 46° and 60th parallel south, 60° south of t ...

Crozet Archipelago The Crozet Islands (; or, officially, ''Archipel Crozet'') are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. History Di ...

of the southern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. With an area of only it is one of the smaller islands of the group. Administratively, it is part of the

French Southern and Antarctic Lands The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (, TAAF) is an overseas territory ( or ) of France. It consists of: * Adélie Land (), the French claim on the continent of Antarctica. * Crozet Islands (), a group in the southern Indian Ocean, south ...

. It is an important nesting site for

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

Description

Île des Pingouins lies at the western edge of the archipelago, of which it is the southernmost island, about 30 km southeast of Île aux Cochons (Pig Island) and 95 km west-southwest of

Île de la Possession Île de la Possession, or Possession Island, formerly Île de la Prise de Possession, is part of the Subantarctic Crozet Archipelago. Administratively, it is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. It is an important nesting site fo ...

(Possession Island). It is small, much eroded by the sea, steep-sided, 4 km long and 1 km wide. Its surrounding coastal cliffs vary from 50 m to 300 m in height, making it virtually inaccessible by sea and rarely visited. It is free of

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

, so has a relatively pristine biota compared with the other islands in the archipelago.

Important Bird Area

At least 29 bird species breed on the island, which 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 i ...

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). It has an exceptionally high density of seabirds, including a million pairs of

macaroni penguin The macaroni penguin (''Eudyptes chrysolophus'') is a species of penguin found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. One of six species of crested penguin, it is very closely related to the royal penguin, and some authorities consid ...

s, 300 pairs of

black-browed albatross The black-browed albatross (''Thalassarche melanophris''), also known as the black-browed mollymawk,Robertson, C. J. R. (2003) is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family. T ...

es, four pairs of Salvin's albatrosses (for which it is the only breeding site in the Indian Ocean) and 30 pairs of

light-mantled albatross The light-mantled albatross (''Phoebetria palpebrata'') also known as the grey-mantled albatross or the light-mantled sooty albatross, is a small albatross in the genus ''Phoebetria'', which it shares with the sooty albatross. The light-mantled ...

es, as well as several thousand pairs of

medium-billed prion Salvin's prion (''Pachyptila salvini''), also known as the medium-billed prion, is a species of seabird in the petrel family Procellariidae. Taxonomy Salvin's prion is a member of the genus ''Pachyptila'' and of the subgenus ''Salviprion'' Mathe ...

s and

white-chinned petrel The white-chinned petrel (''Procellaria aequinoctialis'') also known as the Cape hen and shoemaker, is a large shearwater in the family Procellariidae. It ranges around the Southern Ocean as far north as southern Australia, Peru and Namibia, and ...

s. Other birds nesting in relatively large numbers include wandering,

sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in '' The Sooty ...

, grey-headed and Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses,

northern giant petrel The northern giant petrel (''Macronectes halli''), also known as Hall's giant petrel, is a large, predatory seabird of the southern oceans. Its range overlaps broadly with the range of the related southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus'') ...

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

and

Kerguelen petrel The Kerguelen petrel (''Aphrodroma brevirostris'') is a small (36 cm long) slate-grey seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Aphrodroma''. It is a pelagic, circumpolar seabird of the Southern Ocea ...

s, and

common diving petrel The common diving petrel (''Pelecanoides urinatrix''), also known as the smaller diving petrel or simply the diving petrel, is a diving petrel, one of four very similar auk-like small petrels of the southern oceans. It is native to South Atlanti ...

s. Other island breeders in smaller numbers are

Kerguelen tern The Kerguelen tern (''Sterna virgata'') is a tern of the southern hemisphere. This seabird mainly breeds colonially in the Kerguelen Islands, as its common name implies. However, smaller colonies are also found in the Prince Edward Islands (i. ...

s and Crozet blue-eyed shags.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Île des Pingouins. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-11.

References

Important Bird Areas of the Crozet Islands Pingouins Seabird colonies Penguin colonies {{FrenchSouthernTerritories-geo-stub

Description

Important Bird Area

See also

References