Current view: Text account
Site description (2015 baseline):
Site location and context
Andersen Island is part of the Robinson Island group, and is situated ~20 km west of Cape Daly and ~8 km north of the Mawson Coast, Mac.Robertson Land.
The IBA qualifies on the basis of Adélie Penguin (
Pygoscelis adeliae) colonies on Anderson Island and an unnamed island 1 km to the south west of Andersen Island.
The nearest permanent station is Mawson (AUS) ~30 km to the west in Holme Bay, on the Mawson coast
The presence of breeding Adélie Penguins at Andersen Island and the nearby unnamed island was first reported in Low
et al. (2007). Subsequently, a survey of the Adélie Penguin breeding population was undertaken in the entire Robinson Group in 2006/07 (Southwell
et al. 2014). Data from this survey estimate an Adélie Penguin population in the Andersen IBA of 12 839 (95% CI: 8865, 17 251) pairs (C. Southwell pers. comm. 2015). The confidence interval for this IBA estimate is wider than for the Robinson regional estimate in Southwell
et al. (2014) because the regional survey was designed to provide a single estimate for the entire Robinson population with a specific precision from sample counts rather than estimate populations at individual islands with specific precision.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
None known
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Andersen Island (Antarctica). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/andersen-island-iba-antarctica on 23/12/2024.
