Bird Island, South Georgia

Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / image missing

Bird Iceland is a small island off the west coast of the territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands counting island of South Georgia. The South Atlantic island region " South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands " is a British overseas territory, which is also claimed by Argentina.

Bird Iceland, with an area of ​​only 3.4 square kilometers, was discovered on January 14, 1775 by a British expedition under the leadership of James Cook, who named it so because he saw many birds on the island. At the end of the 19th century sealers visited the island. Near the Freshwater Beach, below the Crag Cave, we saw in 2010, traces of hunters in the Sealer 's Cave.

In the years 1957-1964 the otherwise uninhabited island was visited in each of the Antarctic summers of birdwatchers. On November 24, 1958, the Government of the Falkland Islands established a permanent usable cabin, which was later called Bonner Hut. The United States Antarctic Research Program ( USARP ) established in December 1962 two shelters, which later gave rise to the Iceland Bird Research Station of the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS). The permanently manned research station was only evacuated in 1982 during the time of the Falklands War. There, among other things, the development of the populations of numerous indigenous to the island seabirds and seals is evaluated. Further expansion took place in the years 1981, 1995/96 and 2005. In January 2006, the remains of the previous termination and any accrued rubbish was cleared and removed.

On the island existed in 2010, ten huts and shelters for the observation of seals and seabirds.

Wild life

The island is home to:

  • Antarctic fur seals 65,000 ( about one every 6 m of the island)
  • 50,000 Macaroni Penguins
  • 15,000 pairs of black-browed albatrosses
  • 12,000 pairs of gray-headed albatrosses
  • 1,000 pairs of wandering albatrosses
  • 500 pairs of giant petrels (10 % of the total population of South Georgia )

In contrast to the main island of South Georgia Bird Iceland is rat -free.

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