Brion Island

IUCN Category Ia - Strict Nature Reserve

Visitor center

The Réserve écologique de l' Île -Brion is furnished on an area of ​​650 ha in 1988, reserve in the southeast of the Canadian province of Quebec.

It is one of the Îles de la Madeleine, a group of islands in the St. Lawrence Gulf, the two protected islets have a total area of ​​750 ha. The climate is characterized according to the situation greatly from the Atlantic, also to find large dunes and the rocky coast offers numerous sea birds a home.

The Ile- Brion is relatively flat, the highest point is 60 m above sea level. The base is made of red and gray-green sandstone. In the southwest there are dunes that emerged after the last Ice Age, in which the eroded sandstone of the surrounding coasts gathered. Today, they are largely fixed by the vegetation with Ammophila breviligulata from the Gramineae family.

The number of plant species is estimated to be 200 to 250, of which, however, 10 to 15 % was added by humans. The species represent about one third of the total number of species on the island group dar. as endangered applies the rare Hudsonia tomentosa, which is also found in the dunes of Berry in the west of Quebec. The same is true for those in Quebec, known as GENEVRIER à gros fruits plant from the family of the commons juniper.

On the island of 166 bird species have been recorded, of which more than half breeds there. Of these, some are in danger, finally disappearing from Canada. This highly endangered species are the Yellow-footed plover, the Slavonian Grebe and the Red Knot Calidris canutus or Knuttstrandläufer the subspecies rufa.

Only four species of mammals live in the reserve. These are the deer mouse, here called Souris sylvestre, red fox, coyote, and the bat Myotis lucifugus from the family of mouse ears.