Auckland Islands
Encyclopedia
The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands
and include Auckland Island
, Adams Island
, Enderby Island
, Disappointment Island
, Ewing Island
, Rose Island
, Dundas Island and Green Island, with a combined area of 625 square kilometre. They lie 465 kilometre from the South Island
port of Bluff
, between the latitudes 50° 30' and 50° 55' S and longitudes 165° 50' and 166° 20' E. The islands have no permanent human inhabitants. Ecologically, the Auckland Islands form part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra
ecoregion
.
, the main island, has an approximate land area of 510 km² (197 sq mi), and a length of 42 km (26 mi). It is notable for its steep cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over 600 m (1,969 ft). Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak (650 m (2,133 ft)), Mount Raynal (635 m (2,083 ft)), Mount D'Urville
(630 m (2,067 ft)), Mount Easton (610 m (2,001 ft)), and the Tower of Babel (550 m (1,804 ft)).
The southern end of the island broadens to a width of 26 km (16 mi). Here, the narrow channel of Carnley Harbour
(the Adams Straits on some maps) separates the main island from the roughly triangular Adams Island
(area approximately 100 km² (39 sq mi)), which is even more mountainous, reaching a height of 705 m (2,313 ft) at Mount Dick
. The channel is the remains of the crater of an extinct volcano
, and Adams Island and the southern part of the main island form the crater rim.
The group includes numerous other smaller islands, notably Disappointment Island
(10 km (6.2 mi) northwest of the main island) and Enderby Island (1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) off the northern tip of the main island), each covering less than 5 km² (2 sq mi).
The main island features many sharply-incised inlets, notably Port Ross
at the northern end.
Most of the islands originated volcanically, with the archipelago dominated by two 12 million year old Miocene
volcanoes, subsequently eroded and dissected.
These rest on older volcanic rocks 15-25 million years old with some older granite
s and fossil-bearing sedimentary rock
s from around 100 million years ago.
voyagers first discovered the Auckland Islands. Traces of Polynesian settlement, possibly dating to the 13th century, have been found by archaeologists on Enderby Island. This is the most southerly settlement by Polynesians yet known.
A whaling vessel, Ocean, re-discovered the islands in 1806, finding them uninhabited.
Captain Abraham Bristow
named them "Lord Auckland's" on 18 August 1806 in honour of his father's friend William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland. Bristow worked for the businessman Samuel Enderby
, the namesake of Enderby Island
. The following year Bristow returned on the Sarah in order to claim the archipelago
for Britain
. The explorers Dumont D'Urville in 1839, and James Clark Ross
visited in 1839 and in 1840 respectively.
Whalers and sealers set up temporary bases, the islands becoming one of the principal sealing stations in the Pacific in the years immediately after their discovery. By 1812 so much sealing had occurred on the islands that they lost their commercial importance and sealers redirected their efforts towards Campbell
and Macquarie Island
s. Visits to the islands declined, although recovering seal populations allowed a modest revival in sealing in the mid 1820s.
slaves from the Chatham Islands
migrated to the archipelago, surviving for some 20 years on sealing and flax
growing. Samuel Enderby's grandson, Charles Enderby
, proposed a community based on agriculture and whaling
in 1846. This settlement, established at Port Ross
in 1849 and named Hardwicke, lasted only two and a half years.
The Imperial Parliament at Westminster included the Auckland Islands in the extended boundaries of New Zealand in 1863.
, captained by Thomas Musgrave
, was wrecked in Carnley Harbour
in 1864. Madelene Ferguson Allen's narrative about her great-grandfather, Robert Holding,and the wreck of the Scottish sailing ship the Invercauld
, wrecked in the Auckland Islands in 1864, counterpoints the Grafton story.
In 1866 one of New Zealand's most famous shipwrecks, that of the General Grant
, occurred on the western coast. Several attempts have failed to salvage its cargo, allegedly including bullion. A further maritime tragedy occurred in 1907, with the loss of the Dundonald
and 12 crew off Disappointment Island. Because of the probability of wrecks around the islands, calls arose for the establishment of emergency depots
for castaways in 1868. The New Zealand authorities established and maintained three such depots, at Port Ross, Norman Inlet and Carnley Harbour
from 1887. They also cached additional supplies, including boats (to help reach the depots) and 40 finger-posts (which had smaller amounts of supplies), around the islands.
spent ten days on the islands conducting a magnetic survey and taking botanical, zoological and geological specimens.
From 1941 to 1945 the islands hosted a New Zealand meteorological
station as part of a coastwatching
programme staffed by scientist volunteers and known for security reasons as the "Cape Expedition
". The staff included Robert Falla
, later an eminent New Zealand scientist. the islands have no inhabitants, although scientists visit regularly and the authorities allow limited tourism
on Enderby Island and Auckland Island.
The vegetation of the islands sub-divides into distinct altitudinal zones. Inland from the salt-spray zone, the fringes of the islands predominantly feature forest
s of southern rata Metrosideros umbellata
, and in places the subantarctic tree daisy (Olearia lyallii
), probably introduced by sealers.
Above this exists a subalpine shrub zone dominated by Dracophyllum
, Coprosma
and Myrsine
(with some rata). At higher elevations tussockgrass and megaherb communities dominate the flora.
The islands hold important seabird breeding colonies, among them several species of albatross
, two species of penguin
and several small petrel
s. The rare Yellow-eyed Penguin
breeds here, as does the endemic Auckland Shag
and around a million pairs of Sooty Shearwater
. The Aucklands also host several landbirds as well, including the Auckland Snipe
, Red-fronted and Yellow-crowned Parakeet
s, Tui
, New Zealand Bellbird
, New Zealand Pipit, a subspecies of the Tomtit
, the Double-banded Plover
, New Zealand Falcon as well as the endemic Auckland Rail
(Lewinia muelleri) and Auckland Teal.
The islands host the largest communities of subantarctic invertebrate
s, with 24 species of spider
, 11 species of springtail
and over 200 insect
s.
These include 57 species of beetle
, 110 flies
and 39 moth
s. The islands also boast an endemic genus
and species of weta
, Dendroplectron cryptacanthus
.
The freshwater environments of the islands host a freshwater fish, the koaro or Galaxias brevipinnis, which lives in saltwater as a juvenile but which returns to the rivers as an adult. The islands have 19 species of endemic freshwater invertebrates, including one mollusc, one crustacean
, a mayfly
, 12 flies
and two caddis flies.
A number of introduced species
have come to the islands; ecologists eliminated or allowed to go extinct cattle
, sheep, goat
s, dog
s, possum
s and rabbit
s in the 1990s, but feral cat
s and pig
s remain. Workers removed
the last rabbits on Enderby Island in 1993 by the application of poison, also eradicating mice
.
Curiously, rat
s have never managed to colonise the islands, in spite of numerous visits and shipwrecks and their ubiquity on other islands.
Introduced species affected the native vegetation and bird life, and caused the extinction
of the Auckland Merganser, a duck formerly widespread in southern New Zealand, and ultimately confined to the islands.
Only two native mammal
s exist: two species of seal
which haul out
on the islands, the New Zealand fur seal
and the threatened New Zealand sea lion
.
A population in excess of 1,000 southern right whale
s is found off the islands.
New Zealand sub-antarctic islands
The five southernmost groups of the New Zealand Outlying Islands form the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic islands. These islands are collectively designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site....
and include Auckland Island
Auckland Island
Auckland Island is the main island of the Auckland Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to New Zealand. It is inscribed in the together with the other subantarctic New Zealand islands in the region as follows: 877-004 Auckland Isls, New Zealand S50.29 E165.52...
, Adams Island
Adams Island, New Zealand
Adams Island is part of Auckland Islands archipelago. The southern end of Auckland Island broadens to a width of where a narrow channel, known as Carnley Harbour or the Adams Straits, separates it from the roughly triangular Adams Island , which is even more mountainous, reaching a height of at...
, Enderby Island
Enderby Island, New Zealand
-External links:***...
, Disappointment Island
Disappointment Island
Disappointment Island is one of seven uninhabited islands of the archipelago Auckland Islands. It is from the north-west end of Auckland Island and south of New Zealand. It is home to the White-capped Albatross. About 65,000 pairs - nearly the entire world population - nest on Disappointment...
, Ewing Island
Ewing Island, New Zealand
Ewing Island is an uninhabited island, part of the Auckland Islands group, a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands....
, Rose Island
Rose Island, New Zealand
Rose Island is an uninhabited island, part of the Auckland Islands group, a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands....
, Dundas Island and Green Island, with a combined area of 625 square kilometre. They lie 465 kilometre from the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
port of Bluff
Bluff, New Zealand
Bluff is a town and seaport in the Southland region, on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the southern-most town in New Zealand and, despite Slope Point being further to the south, is colloquially used to refer to the southern extremity of the country...
, between the latitudes 50° 30' and 50° 55' S and longitudes 165° 50' and 166° 20' E. The islands have no permanent human inhabitants. Ecologically, the Auckland Islands form part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra
Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra
The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion, within the Tundra Biome, includes five remote island groups in the Southern Ocean south of New Zealand: the Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands and Campbell Island groups of New Zealand, and Macquarie Island of Australia.-Location...
ecoregion
Ecoregion
An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...
.
Geography
Auckland IslandAuckland Island
Auckland Island is the main island of the Auckland Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to New Zealand. It is inscribed in the together with the other subantarctic New Zealand islands in the region as follows: 877-004 Auckland Isls, New Zealand S50.29 E165.52...
, the main island, has an approximate land area of 510 km² (197 sq mi), and a length of 42 km (26 mi). It is notable for its steep cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over 600 m (1,969 ft). Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak (650 m (2,133 ft)), Mount Raynal (635 m (2,083 ft)), Mount D'Urville
Mount D'Urville
Mount D'Urville is the highest point on Auckland Island, one of New Zealand's subantarctic outlying islands, and is named after French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville. It rises to a height of 630 m . It stands in the southeast of the main island, overlooking the mouth of Carnley Harbour...
(630 m (2,067 ft)), Mount Easton (610 m (2,001 ft)), and the Tower of Babel (550 m (1,804 ft)).
The southern end of the island broadens to a width of 26 km (16 mi). Here, the narrow channel of Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour is a large natural harbour in the south of the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands. Formed from the drowned crater of an extinct volcano, the harbour separates the mainland of Auckland Island from the smaller Adams Island...
(the Adams Straits on some maps) separates the main island from the roughly triangular Adams Island
Adams Island, New Zealand
Adams Island is part of Auckland Islands archipelago. The southern end of Auckland Island broadens to a width of where a narrow channel, known as Carnley Harbour or the Adams Straits, separates it from the roughly triangular Adams Island , which is even more mountainous, reaching a height of at...
(area approximately 100 km² (39 sq mi)), which is even more mountainous, reaching a height of 705 m (2,313 ft) at Mount Dick
Mount Dick
Mount Dick is a 705 metre peak on Adams Island, the second-largest of New Zealand's Auckland Island chain. It is the highest point in the Auckland Islands. Mount Dick is on the rim of an extinct volcano, the crater of which now forms Carnley Harbour, which separates Adams Island from the larger...
. The channel is the remains of the crater of an extinct volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
, and Adams Island and the southern part of the main island form the crater rim.
The group includes numerous other smaller islands, notably Disappointment Island
Disappointment Island
Disappointment Island is one of seven uninhabited islands of the archipelago Auckland Islands. It is from the north-west end of Auckland Island and south of New Zealand. It is home to the White-capped Albatross. About 65,000 pairs - nearly the entire world population - nest on Disappointment...
(10 km (6.2 mi) northwest of the main island) and Enderby Island (1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) off the northern tip of the main island), each covering less than 5 km² (2 sq mi).
The main island features many sharply-incised inlets, notably Port Ross
Port Ross
Port Ross is a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands Group, a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands....
at the northern end.
Most of the islands originated volcanically, with the archipelago dominated by two 12 million year old Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
volcanoes, subsequently eroded and dissected.
These rest on older volcanic rocks 15-25 million years old with some older granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
s and fossil-bearing sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
s from around 100 million years ago.
History
Discovery and early exploitation
Some evidence exists that PolynesianPolynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
voyagers first discovered the Auckland Islands. Traces of Polynesian settlement, possibly dating to the 13th century, have been found by archaeologists on Enderby Island. This is the most southerly settlement by Polynesians yet known.
A whaling vessel, Ocean, re-discovered the islands in 1806, finding them uninhabited.
Captain Abraham Bristow
Abraham Bristow
Abraham Bristow was a British sealer and whaler. It is documented that he started his career in 1797. In August 1806 he discovered the Auckland Islands.-References:* // Notes and Queries , 17 : 369-371....
named them "Lord Auckland's" on 18 August 1806 in honour of his father's friend William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland. Bristow worked for the businessman Samuel Enderby
Samuel Enderby
Samuel Enderby was a successful whale oil merchant. In the 18th century, he founded Samuel Enderby & Sons, a prominent shipping and whaling and sealing company....
, the namesake of Enderby Island
Enderby Island, New Zealand
-External links:***...
. The following year Bristow returned on the Sarah in order to claim the archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
for Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. The explorers Dumont D'Urville in 1839, and James Clark Ross
James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross , was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry, and later led his own expedition to Antarctica.-Arctic explorer:...
visited in 1839 and in 1840 respectively.
Whalers and sealers set up temporary bases, the islands becoming one of the principal sealing stations in the Pacific in the years immediately after their discovery. By 1812 so much sealing had occurred on the islands that they lost their commercial importance and sealers redirected their efforts towards Campbell
Campbell Island, New Zealand
Campbell Island is a remote, subantarctic island of New Zealand and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers of the group's , and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Folly Island , Isle de Jeanette Marie, and Jacquemart Island, the latter being the...
and Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...
s. Visits to the islands declined, although recovering seal populations allowed a modest revival in sealing in the mid 1820s.
Settlement
uninhabited, the islands saw unsuccessful settlements in the mid-19th century. In 1842 a small party of Māori and their MorioriMoriori
Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands , east of the New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean...
slaves from the Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
migrated to the archipelago, surviving for some 20 years on sealing and flax
New Zealand flax
New Zealand flax describes common New Zealand perennial plants Phormium tenax and Phormium cookianum, known by the Māori names harakeke and wharariki respectively...
growing. Samuel Enderby's grandson, Charles Enderby
Charles Enderby
Charles Enderby was one of three sons of Samuel Enderby Junior . He was the grandson of Samuel Enderby , who founded the Samuel Enderby & Sons company in 1775. Samuel Enderby & Sons was one of the most prominent English sealing and whaling firms, active in both the Arctic and Southern Oceans...
, proposed a community based on agriculture and whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
in 1846. This settlement, established at Port Ross
Port Ross
Port Ross is a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands Group, a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands....
in 1849 and named Hardwicke, lasted only two and a half years.
The Imperial Parliament at Westminster included the Auckland Islands in the extended boundaries of New Zealand in 1863.
Shipwrecks
The rocky coasts of the islands have proved disastrous for several ships. The GraftonGrafton (ship)
The Grafton was a 56 ton schooner sailing out of Sydney during the 1860s. It was wrecked in the north arm of Carnley Harbour, Auckland Island on 3 January 1864.-Last yoyage:...
, captained by Thomas Musgrave
Thomas Musgrave (castaway)
Captain Thomas Musgrave FRGS was a British and Australian ship’s captain and lighthouse keeper who was wrecked with the brigantine Grafton in the subantarctic Auckland Islands, and castaway there for over 18 months....
, was wrecked in Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour is a large natural harbour in the south of the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands. Formed from the drowned crater of an extinct volcano, the harbour separates the mainland of Auckland Island from the smaller Adams Island...
in 1864. Madelene Ferguson Allen's narrative about her great-grandfather, Robert Holding,and the wreck of the Scottish sailing ship the Invercauld
Invercauld (ship)
The Invercauld was an 1100 ton sailing vessel that was wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1864.-Wreck:The Invercauld was under the command of Captain George Dalgarno and was bound from Malbourne to Callao in ballast with a total of 25 crew. She struck the Auckland Islands at 2 am on 11 May 1864,...
, wrecked in the Auckland Islands in 1864, counterpoints the Grafton story.
In 1866 one of New Zealand's most famous shipwrecks, that of the General Grant
General Grant (ship)
The General Grant was a 1,005-ton three-masted barque built in Maine, USA in 1864 and registered in Boston, USA. She was named after Ulysses S. Grant, owned by Messers Boyes, Richardson & Co...
, occurred on the western coast. Several attempts have failed to salvage its cargo, allegedly including bullion. A further maritime tragedy occurred in 1907, with the loss of the Dundonald
Dundonald (ship)
The Dundonald was a steel, four-masted barque of 2205 tons, which was launched in Belfast in 1891. She was shipwrecked in 1907 in the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands...
and 12 crew off Disappointment Island. Because of the probability of wrecks around the islands, calls arose for the establishment of emergency depots
Castaway depot
A castaway depot is a store or hut placed on an isolated island to provide emergency supplies and relief for castaways and victims of shipwrecks...
for castaways in 1868. The New Zealand authorities established and maintained three such depots, at Port Ross, Norman Inlet and Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour is a large natural harbour in the south of the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands. Formed from the drowned crater of an extinct volcano, the harbour separates the mainland of Auckland Island from the smaller Adams Island...
from 1887. They also cached additional supplies, including boats (to help reach the depots) and 40 finger-posts (which had smaller amounts of supplies), around the islands.
Scientific research and reserve
The 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition
The 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition was a New Zealand scientific expedition organised by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury...
spent ten days on the islands conducting a magnetic survey and taking botanical, zoological and geological specimens.
From 1941 to 1945 the islands hosted a New Zealand meteorological
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
station as part of a coastwatching
Coastwatchers
The Coastwatchers, also known as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, were Allied military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands during World War II to observe enemy movements and rescue stranded Allied...
programme staffed by scientist volunteers and known for security reasons as the "Cape Expedition
Cape Expedition
Cape Expedition was the deliberately misleading name given to a secret five-year wartime program of establishing coastwatching stations on New Zealand’s more distant uninhabited subantarctic islands...
". The staff included Robert Falla
Robert Alexander Falla
Sir Robert Alexander Falla was a New Zealand museum administrator and ornithologist.He was assistant zoologist with the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under Sir Douglas Mawson 1929-1931. He was the founding President of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand...
, later an eminent New Zealand scientist. the islands have no inhabitants, although scientists visit regularly and the authorities allow limited tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
on Enderby Island and Auckland Island.
Ecology
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s of southern rata Metrosideros umbellata
Metrosideros umbellata
Southern rātā , is a tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to 15 m. or more tall with a trunk up to 1 m. or more in diameter. It produces masses of red flowers in summer...
, and in places the subantarctic tree daisy (Olearia lyallii
Olearia lyallii
Olearia lyallii is a New Zealand plant from the genus Olearia. It is commonly known as the subantarctic tree daisy. The species is endemic to the Snares Islands and southern New Zealand, and has also established itself as an introduced species on the Auckland Islands, where the type specimen was...
), probably introduced by sealers.
Above this exists a subalpine shrub zone dominated by Dracophyllum
Dracophyllum
Dracophyllum is a genus of plants belonging to the family Ericaceae, formerly Epacridaceae. There are some one hundred or so species in the genus, mostly shrubs but also cushion plants and trees, found in New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia. The name, Dracophyllum or Dragon-leaf refers to...
, Coprosma
Coprosma
Coprosma is a genus of 108 species that are found in New Zealand , Hawaii , Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands of the Pacific Ocean to Australia and the Juan Fernández Is. Many species are small shrubs with tiny evergreen leaves, but a few are small trees and have much larger leaves...
and Myrsine
Myrsine
Myrsine is a genus of flowering plants, the nominate genus of the family Myrsinaceae. It is found nearly worldwide, primarily in tropical and subtropical areas...
(with some rata). At higher elevations tussockgrass and megaherb communities dominate the flora.
The islands hold important seabird breeding colonies, among them several species of albatross
Albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes . They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific...
, two species of penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
and several small petrel
Petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group...
s. The rare Yellow-eyed Penguin
Yellow-eyed Penguin
The Yellow-eyed Penguin or Hoiho is a penguin native to New Zealand. Previously thought closely related to the Little Penguin , molecular research has shown it more closely related to penguins of the genus Eudyptes...
breeds here, as does the endemic Auckland Shag
Auckland Shag
The Auckland Shag or Auckland Islands Shag is a species of cormorant from New Zealand. The species is endemic to the Auckland Islands archipelago. It is a sedentary bird that primarily eats various crustaceans and fish. In recent years, roughly 1,000 pairs have been recorded...
and around a million pairs of Sooty Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
The Sooty Shearwater is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand it is also known by its Māori name tītī and as "muttonbird", like its relatives the Wedge-tailed Shearwater and the Australian Short-tailed Shearwater The Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) is...
. The Aucklands also host several landbirds as well, including the Auckland Snipe
Auckland Snipe
The Auckland Snipe or Auckland Islands Snipe is a small bird in the sandpiper family. It is the isolated nominate subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe that is endemic to the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic island group south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean.-Taxonomy and etymology:The...
, Red-fronted and Yellow-crowned Parakeet
Yellow-crowned Parakeet
The Yellow-crowned Parakeet, Cyanoramphus auriceps, is a species of parakeet endemic to the islands of New Zealand. The species is found across the main three islands of New Zealand, North Island, South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura, as well as on the subantarctic Auckland Islands...
s, Tui
Tui (bird)
The tui is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand. It is one of the largest members of the diverse honeyeater family....
, New Zealand Bellbird
New Zealand Bellbird
The New Zealand Bellbird , also known by its Māori names Korimako or Makomako, is a passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It has greenish colouration and is the only living member of the genus Anthornis. The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of bird song...
, New Zealand Pipit, a subspecies of the Tomtit
Tomtit
The Tomtit, Petroica macrocephala, is a small passerine bird in the family Petroicidae, the Australian robins. It is endemic to the islands of New Zealand, ranging across the main islands as well as several of the outlying islands. It has several other English names as well. There are several...
, the Double-banded Plover
Double-banded Plover
The Double-banded Plover , known as the Banded Dotterel in New Zealand, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. It lives in beaches, mud flats, grasslands and on bare ground...
, New Zealand Falcon as well as the endemic Auckland Rail
Auckland Rail
The Auckland Rail is a small nearly flightless rail endemic to the Auckland Islands 460 km south of New Zealand. It is somewhat of a biogeographical anomaly, being the only species in the genus Lewinia to have reached the islands of New Zealand, skipping over the main islands to reach the remote...
(Lewinia muelleri) and Auckland Teal.
The islands host the largest communities of subantarctic invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s, with 24 species of spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
, 11 species of springtail
Springtail
Springtails form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects...
and over 200 insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s.
These include 57 species of beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
, 110 flies
Fly
True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...
and 39 moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
s. The islands also boast an endemic genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
and species of weta
Weta
Weta is the name given to about 70 insect species endemic to New Zealand. There are many similar species around the world, though most are in the southern hemisphere. The name comes from the Māori word 'wētā' and is the same in the plural...
, Dendroplectron cryptacanthus
Dendroplectron cryptacanthus
Dendroplectron cryptacanthus, the Auckland Island weta, is a cave weta in the family Rhaphidophoridae, the only member of the genus Dendroplectron. It is endemic to the Auckland Islands of New Zealand....
.
The freshwater environments of the islands host a freshwater fish, the koaro or Galaxias brevipinnis, which lives in saltwater as a juvenile but which returns to the rivers as an adult. The islands have 19 species of endemic freshwater invertebrates, including one mollusc, one crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
, a mayfly
Mayfly
Mayflies are insects which belong to the Order Ephemeroptera . They have been placed into an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies...
, 12 flies
Fly
True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...
and two caddis flies.
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
have come to the islands; ecologists eliminated or allowed to go extinct cattle
Enderby Island Cattle
Enderby Island Cattle are a breed of cattle that existed in a wild state in isolation on Enderby Island, New Zealand for over 80 years. Only about seven specimens remain today, in New Zealand, after a rescue expedition by the Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand , and a culling program...
, sheep, goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s, dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s, possum
Common Brushtail Possum
The Common Brushtail Possum is a nocturnal, semi-arboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, it is native to Australia, and the largest of the possums.Like most possums, the Common Brushtail is nocturnal...
s and rabbit
Enderby Island Rabbit
The Enderby Island Rabbit, or simply Enderby Rabbit, is a rare breed of domesticated European Rabbit originating from rabbits introduced to Enderby Island, an uninhabited subantarctic island in New Zealand’s Auckland Islands group, from Australia in October 1865 to serve as castaway food...
s in the 1990s, but feral cat
Feral cat
A feral cat is a descendant of a domesticated cat that has returned to the wild. It is distinguished from a stray cat, which is a pet cat that has been lost or abandoned, while feral cats are born in the wild; the offspring of a stray cat can be considered feral if born in the wild.In many parts of...
s and pig
Auckland Island Pig
The Auckland Island Pig is a feral breed of domestic pig found on subantarctic Auckland Island, New Zealand. Various introductions of pigs were made to the uninhabited island as a source of food for stranded sailors or visiting whalers, the first in 1807 with further liberations in 1840, 1842 and...
s remain. Workers removed
Island restoration
The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic species, as well as important breeding grounds for seabirds and some...
the last rabbits on Enderby Island in 1993 by the application of poison, also eradicating mice
House mouse
The house mouse is a small rodent, a mouse, one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus.As a wild animal the house mouse mainly lives associated with humans, causing damage to crops and stored food....
.
Curiously, rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s have never managed to colonise the islands, in spite of numerous visits and shipwrecks and their ubiquity on other islands.
Introduced species affected the native vegetation and bird life, and caused the extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
of the Auckland Merganser, a duck formerly widespread in southern New Zealand, and ultimately confined to the islands.
Only two native mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s exist: two species of seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
which haul out
Hauling-out
Hauling-out is the behaviour associated with pinnipeds , of temporarily leaving the water between periods of foraging activity for sites on land or ice...
on the islands, the New Zealand fur seal
New Zealand Fur Seal
The Australian fur seal , or New Zealand fur seal or southern fur seal, is a species of fur seal found around the south coast of Australia, the coast of the South Island of New Zealand, and some of the small islands to the south and east of there...
and the threatened New Zealand sea lion
New Zealand Sea Lion
The New Zealand Sea Lion also known as Hooker's Sea Lion or Whakahao in Māori is a species of sea lion that breeds around the coast of New Zealand's South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura to some extent, and to a greater extent around the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, especially the Auckland...
.
A population in excess of 1,000 southern right whale
Southern Right Whale
The southern right whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Like other right whales, the southern right whale is readily distinguished from others by the callosities on its head, a broad back without a dorsal fin, and a long arching...
s is found off the islands.
See also
- Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
- List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
- List of islands of New Zealand
- New Zealand Sub-Antarctic IslandsNew Zealand sub-antarctic islandsThe five southernmost groups of the New Zealand Outlying Islands form the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic islands. These islands are collectively designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site....
- SCARScientific Committee on Antarctic ResearchThe Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research is an interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science . It was established in February 1958 to continue the international coordination of Antarctic scientific activities that had begun during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58...
- Territorial claims in Antarctica
Further reading
- Wise's New Zealand Guide (4th ed.) (1969). Dunedin: H. Wise & Co. (N.Z.) Ltd.
- Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand (1863, Session III Oct-Dec) (A5)
- Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked At the Edge of the World (2007) by Joan Druett – an account of the Grafton & Invercauld wrecks
- Sub Antarctic New Zealand: A Rare Heritage by Neville Peat – the Department of Conservation guide to the islands
External links
- Auckland Islands Marine Reserve (New Zealand Department of Conservation)
- High Resolution Map
- A Map of the Islands
- Island Information
- Historical Timeline of the Auckland Islands
- Diary of a 1962–63 biological visit by E. J. Fisher
- 1948 article on Auckland Islands Coleoptera by E. S. Gourlay
