AQ172
Mandible Cirque


Country/territory: Antarctica
IBA Justification: A4iii (2015)

Area: 121 hectares (1.21 km2)


Site description (2015 baseline)

Mandible Cirque is situated on the southern coast of Daniell Peninsula, on the Borchgrevink Coast of northern Victoria Land, ~ 8 km southwest of Cape Phillips.

The IBA qualifies on the basis of the large Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony breeding on ice-free ground adjacent to Mandible Cirque.

The nearest permanent stations are Mario Zucchelli (ITA) and Jang Bogo (KOR), ~240 km to the southwest in Terra Nova Bay.

Key biodiversity

A mean of 16 837 breeding pairs of Adélie Penguin was reported over 3 seasons sampled between 1981 and 2012 (Lyver et al. 2014). Information on other bird species at the site is not available.

Non-bird biodiversity: None known.


Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: Mandible Cirque (Antarctica). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/mandible-cirque-iba-antarctica on 13/01/2025.