Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Île aux Cochons is the westernmost island of the archipelago. It is a weakly eroded dome of volcanic origin, scattered with small, inactive craters. The coastline consists in part of low cliffs. Cats, rabbits and mice occur; there is, however, no human infrastructure and visits by scientific expeditions are rare.
See Box for key species. At least 19 species breed. Île aux Cochons is extremely important for its large penguin populations: it holds the world’s largest rookery of
Aptenodytes patagonicus. The largest colony of
Diomedea exulans in the Indian Ocean is also found here. Despite the presence of cats, large populations of small petrels still nest on the island, notably four million pairs of
Pachyptila salvini salvini and one million pairs of
Pelecanoides georgicus.
Non-bird biodiversity: Large populations of the mammals Mirounga leonina, Arctocephalus gazella and A. tropicalis breed, and two endemic plant species and 59 endemic arthropod species occur.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Île aux Cochons is a French Antarctic National Park to which access is restricted. It is also a proposed Nature Reserve. Of the three introduced species, cats are the greatest threat and have probably eliminated several species from the island.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Île aux Cochons (French Southern Territories). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/île-aux-cochons-iba-french-southern-territories on 22/12/2024.
