The Rallier du Baty Peninsula ( or ''Presqu'ile Rallier du Baty'') is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

of Grande Terre, the main island of 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 ...

Kerguelen The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic region. They are among the most isolated places on Earth, with the closest t ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

in 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), ...

. It occupies the south-western corner of the island, and is about 35 km long, extending from north to south, and 25 km across at its widest. The 1,202 m high

Bicorne The bicorne or bicorn (two-cornered) is a historical form of hat widely adopted in the 1790s as an item of uniform by European and American army and naval officers. Most generals and staff officers of the Napoleonic period wore bicornes, whic ...

rises in the southern coast of the peninsula. It is named for

Raymond Rallier du Baty Raymond Rallier du Baty (30 August 1881 – 7 May 1978) was a French sailor and Exploration, explorer, from Lorient in Brittany, who carried out surveys of the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean in the early 20th century. ...

, a French sailor who charted the archipelago in the early 20th century. The Îles Boynes, France's southernmost land apart from

Adélie Land Adélie Land ( ) or Adélie Coast is a Territorial claims in Antarctica, claimed territory of France located on the continent of Antarctica. It stretches from a portion of the Southern Ocean coastline all the way inland to the South Pole. Franc ...

in Antarctica, lie 30 km south of the tip of the peninsula.

Important Bird Area

The western half of the peninsula 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 a 270 km²

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) because of its value as a breeding 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 ...

s, with at least 31 species nesting there. The site is bordered on the north by the Cook Glacier and, to the south and east, by the Arête Jérémine and the main mountain ridge of the peninsula. Because it is isolated by rivers and glaciers, it is the only part of Grande Terre free from

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s and

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'' (bandicoo ...

s, while

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s are largely restricted to the northern part. The landscape is hilly and mostly lacks vegetation. The area shows

geothermal Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to: * Geothermal energy, useful energy generated and stored in the Earth * Geothermal activity, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal he ...

activity, with vents emitting steam and gas. The

ice cap In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets. Description By definition, ice caps are not constrained by topogra ...

ped mountains are cut by large, glaciated valleys. Human visitation is rare. The IBA is particularly important for

penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

s, with 10,000 pairs of eastern rockhoppers, up to 3000 pairs of gentoos, 60,000 pairs of

kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

and over half a million pairs of macaronis. The colony of 750 pairs of

wandering albatross The snowy albatross (''Diomedea exulans''), also known as the wandering albatross, white-winged albatross, or goonie, is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae Albatrosses, of the biological family (biology), family Diomedeidae, are la ...

es is the largest in Kerguelen. It is the only known breeding site in the archipelago for

southern giant petrel The southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant pe ...

s. It also holds very large populations of smaller petrels, especially

white-headed petrel The white-headed petrel (''Pterodroma lessonii''), also known as the white-headed fulmar, is a species of seabird in the petrel family, Procellariidae. It is about in length. White-headed petrels breed alone or in colonies in burrows dug among ...

s, slender-billed and

Antarctic prion The Antarctic prion (''Pachyptila desolata'') also known as the dove prion, or totorore in Māori, is the largest of the prions, a genus of small petrels of the Southern Ocean. Taxonomy The Antarctic prion was formally described in 1789 by th ...

s, and

South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

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 birds breeding in the IBA include Eaton's pintails,

Kerguelen shag The Kerguelen shag (''Leucocarbo verrucosus'') is a species of cormorant endemic to the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, one of the most isolated places on Earth. Many authorities consider it a subspecies of the imperial shag. Ran ...

black-faced sheathbill The black-faced sheathbill (''Chionis minor''), also called the lesser sheathbill or paddy bird, is one of only two species of sheathbills, aberrant wader, shorebirds which are terrestrial (land)scavengers of subantarctic islands. Description ...

s and

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.BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Péninsule Rallier du Baty. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-11.

Vegetation

The western half of the Péninsule Rallier du Baty has the endemic but rare Lyallia Cushion.

Area management

Western Péninsule Rallier du Baty remains an area with limited access. Owing to its status as an 'Area restricted to scientific and technical research', visitors to the site are mostly scientists or researchers. The area could also be turned into a nature reserve in the future. Colonization of the site by mammalian species such as rats has gone up in recent years, since the glaciers that acted as barriers have been shrinking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peninsule Rallier Du Baty Landforms of the Kerguelen Islands Important Bird Areas of Kerguelen Rallier du Baty Peninsulas of France