Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Île des Pingouins is situated on the western edge of the archipelago, close to the Île des Cochons. It is a small, sheer island, 4 km by 1 km, much eroded by the sea. The coastal cliffs that surround the island vary in height between 50–300 m. The island is virtually inaccessible from the sea and is therefore only occasionally visited by man. It is free of any introduced species, so both vegetation and fauna are pristine.
See Box for key species. At least 29 species breed. This site has an exceptionally high density of seabirds, notably including six species of albatross which, in addition to those listed below, comprise 300 pairs of
Diomedea melanophris, four pairs of
D. cauta salvini, (the only breeding locality for this subspecies in the Indian Ocean) and 30 pairs of
Phoebetria palpebrata. Several thousand pairs of
Pachyptila salvini salvini and
Procellaria aequinoctialis also occur.
Non-bird biodiversity: None known to BirdLife International.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The whole of Île des Pingouins is a French Antarctic National Park to which access is restricted. It is also a proposed Nature Reserve.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Île des Pingouins (French Southern Territories). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/île-des-pingouins-iba-french-southern-territories on 23/11/2024.
