The island has a land area of about 442.5km2 (170.9sqmi),[1] and is 42 kilometres (26mi) long. It was formed 25 to 10 million years ago from a huge volcanic pile which formed two domes – one centred around Carnley Harbour in the south and another (the Ross Dome) around Disappointment Island to the west. The island is made of volcanic scoria, blanketed in over 2m of peat.[2] It is notable for its steep cliffs and rugged terrain, which rises to over 600m (1,969ft). Prominent peaks include Cavern Peak, at 659m or 2,162ft; Mount Raynal, at 635m or 2,083ft; Mount D'Urville, at 630m or 2,067ft; Mount Easton, at 610m or 2,001ft; and the Tower of Babel, at 550m or 1,804ft.[3]
The southern end of the island broadens to a width of 26 kilometres (16mi), encompassing Carnley Harbour. At the western side a very narrow channel known as Victoria Passage separates the main island from the smaller Adams Island.[4] Adams Island and the southern part of the main island form the crater rim; three kilometres (1.9mi) north of Carnley Harbour's mouth lies Cape Lovitt, the westernmost point of New Zealand.[citation needed]
Flora
Auckland looking north over Deas Head towards Rose- and Enderby Island
There are distinct vegetation zones. There is a band of Southern rataMetrosideros umbellata around the coast apart from on the western side, the height of which is determined by the shelter, aspect and degree of the slope.[5] The rata forest may extend into the Chionochloatussock grasslands but in most places merges into a thick band of low, tight scrub dominated by Dracophyllum longifolium, Ozothamnus vauvilliersii and Myrsine divaricata. This scrub band is almost impenetrable and in places is dense enough to walk on top of.
An expedition report from 1907 describes the scrub thusly:
The subalpine scrub at 400 ft. made our advance extremely toilsome, the thick masses of Suttonia divaricata scrub had to be cut through before any progress could be made. Throughout our stay on the island this scrub was one of the worst drawbacks we had to encounter; from four to six feet high it is quite impassable with reasonable exertion; walking on the top can be undertaken only by a very light man. Only with the severest exertion can it be pushed aside to enable a man to pass, crawling under it is out of the question.[6]
Port Ross at the north end of Auckland Island is the only breeding site for the New Zealand population of southern right whales. Up to 400 may be found in the harbour during the winter months, and are regularly surveyed by the University of Otago.[9]
A breeding population of New Zealand sea lions is found on the island. 80% of the total population live and breed in the archipelago. The New Zealand Department of Conservation has conducted an annual survey of the population on the islands since 1994.[10]
Bird life
The island is part of the Auckland Island group Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because of the significance of the group as a breeding site for several species of seabirds.[11]
The Gibson's albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni,Auckland shagLeucocarbo colensoi,Auckland tealAnas aucklandica, Auckland railLewinia muelleri and Auckland snipeCoenocorypha aucklandica are all endemic to the Auckland Island group.[12] Of these only shags are currently breeding on main Auckland Island, in areas where introduced cats and pigs cannot access their nests.
The Auckland Island merganserMergus australis went extinct in 1902. The population is thought to have been 20–30 breeding pairs prior to predation by introduced pigs and cats. The last specimen was collected as a museum specimen in January 1902.[13]
There are currently introduced pigs, cats and mice on Auckland Island. Auckland Island is the only island within the New Zealand Subantarctic Island Area with invasive mammalian pests.[19] A project proposed by the Department of Conservation aims to remove these pests from the island, with feasibility trials started in 2018.[20][21]
DNA analysis suggests that mice—Mus musculus—did not colonise Auckland Island from a New Zealand population but instead arrived with whalers or sealers from North America.[22] They eat invertebrates, seeds, other plant material, native fish eggs and can eat bird eggs and chicks.[23] They severely deplete invertebrate populations, reduce the seedbank, eat seedlings & plants and compete with birds for food resources.[24]
Domestic cats—Felis catus—were first recorded at Terror Cove in 1840, presumably introduced by sealers, but most likely arrived in the two decades prior to this.[24] The impact of cats on the birds of Auckland Island was first noted by the Coastwatchers, who tamed some for company – the Ranui Station cats were recorded to kill 60 Antarctic prions over three months in 1942. Ornithologist Brian Bell found that prions were confined to cliff faces at Crozier Point in 1962 and noted "any bird landing...[fell] an immediate prey to the feral cats.".[25] Gut content and scat analysis show that cats are feeding on small passerines and seabirds.[26] A cat was seen feeding on a pre-fledging juvenile white-capped mollymawk at South West Cape.[27]
Goats were introduced to the Auckland Islands several times in the second half of the nineteenth century, to serve as a source of food for castaway sailors, with at least one liberation in 1865 on the main Auckland Island. By the 1970s, only one population remained, a group of about 100 based on the northwest side of Port Ross, in the north-east of the main island.[28] Browsing by goats caused significant damage to lowland tussock Chinochloa antarctica in particular.[29] In 1986 and 1987, over 60 animals were removed from the island for captive breeding in New Zealand. A decision was made to eradicate the remaining animals, an operation which was completed by 1992. An investigation in 1999 into the fate of the translocated animals in New Zealand found that the breed had become extinct.[30]50°41′S166°05′E / 50.69°S 166.08°E / -50.69; 166.08
Pigs—Sus scrofa—were first introduced at Port Ross in the north of Auckland Island in 1807 by Captain Abraham Bristow and several further liberations occurred in the 19th century. The pigs were intended as a food source for shipwreck survivors and sealers.[2][31]Auckland Island pigs are a feral race of domestic pigs which are considered a distinct breed by the Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. Pigs have had a severe impact on populations of megaherbs, with populations of these plants on Auckland Island being almost totally depleted by the early 1900s.[29]
Oleria lyalli is a tree asterad native to New Zealand which may have arrived with humans in the 19th century. It is spreading from a historic settlement site at Erebus Cove and covers neighbouring Ewing Island.[33]HarakekePhormium tenax is found at Erebus Cove, Sealer's Creek, Ranui Cove and Tandy Inlet, and was introduced probably by the second wave of sealers to visit the island, to make rope, twine, baskets, mats etc.[34]Kormiko, Veronica salicifolia, was first reported in 1975 around the Lindley Point farmhouse site at Deas Head, built in 1851.[35]
Human presence on the island
Hardwicke graveyard, 2011
There is archaeological evidence that the Auckland Islands were briefly settled and abandoned by Polynesians around 600–700 years ago. Māori and Moriori from the Chatham Islands settled at Ranui Cove from 1842 till 1856.[34] Auckland Island was the site of the failed settlement of Hardwicke, which was founded in 1849 but survived only three years before being disbanded in 1852.[36]
Both the Grafton and the Invercauld were wrecked on Auckland Island in 1864, and groups of survivors lived unaware of each other on opposite ends of the island. The Grafton survivors lived for 18 months on the island before building a boat and sailing to New Zealand; the Invercauld survivors camped in the remains of Hardwicke; and all but three died before being rescued.[37]
The German transit of Venus expedition of 1874 made observations from Terror Cove in Port Ross.[38]
Coastwatchers from the Cape Expedition were stationed on the island from March 1941 to October 1945. Two stations were constructed: One at Ranui Cove in outer Port Ross and another at Tagua, on Musgrave Peninsula in Carnley Harbour. A base at Waterfall Inlet was the mooring point for the Ranui which serviced the stations.[39]
1 2 Adams, CJ (1983). "Age of the volcanoes and granite basement of the Auckland Islands, Southwest Pacific". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 26 (3): 227–237. doi:10.1080/00288306.1983.10422237.
1 2 Rance, Chris; Rance, Brian; Barkla, J (2015). New Zealand's subantarctic islands. New Zealand: Department of Conservation. pp.6, 10–13, 20–67. ISBN978-0-478-14470-3.
↑ Chimera, C (1995). "Diet of feral goats and feral pigs, Auckland Island, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Ecology. 19 (2): 203–207. JSTOR24054437.
↑ Broome, K; Brown, D; Brown, K; Murphy, E; Birmingham, C; Golding, C; Corson, P; Cox, A; Griffiths, R (2019). "House mice on islands: Impacts, management and lessons from New Zealand.". In Veitch, CR; Clout, MN; Martin, AR; Russell, JC; West, CJ (eds.). Island Invasives: Scaling up to meet the challenge. IUCN. pp.100–107.
↑ Russell, James; Horn, Stephen; Miskelly, Colin; Sagar, Rachael; Taylor, R (March 2020). "The introduction and impacts of land mammals on the Auckland Islands". Notornis. Special Edition – Auckland Island.
1 2 Walls, Geoff (2009). "Picking up the plant trail: Botanical Evidence of People in the Auckland Islands". In Dingwall, Paul; Jones, Kevin; Egerton, Rachael (eds.). In Care of The Southern Ocean. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association. pp.223–244. ISBN978-0-9582977-0-7.
↑ Rykers, Ellen (July–August 2018). "Lie of the land". New Zealand Geographic. 152: 92–103.
↑ Druett, Joan (2007). Island of the lost: shipwrecked at the edge of the world. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN9781741753684.
↑ Jones, Kevin (2009). "Terror Cove, Port Ross: The German Transit of Venus Expedition 1874 and other Scientific and Discovery Expeditions from 1840 to the Start of World War I". In Dingwall, Paul; Jones, Kevin; Egerton, Rachael (eds.). In Care of The Southern Ocean. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association. pp.87–103. ISBN978-0-9582977-0-7.
↑ Bagley, Steve; Jones, Kevin; Dingwall, Paul; Edkins, Chris (2009). "The Erlangen Incident and the Cape Expedition of World War II". In Dingwall, Paul; Jones, Kevin; Egerton, Rachael (eds.). In Care of the Southern Ocean: an Archaeological and Historical Survey of the Auckland Islands. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association. pp.191–222. ISBN978-0-9582977-0-7.
The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying 465 km (289 mi) south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying 460 km2 (180 sq mi), is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of 570 km2 (220 sq mi). The islands have no permanent human inhabitants.
The Auckland Island merganser, also known as the New Zealand merganser, was a typical merganser that is now extinct.
The magenta petrel, or Chatham Island tāiko, is a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, Pterodroma. Found exclusively on Chatham Island, New Zealand, it is one of the rarest birds in the world, believed to be extinct for over 100 years before its rediscovery in the 1970s.
Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku is an uninhabited subantarctic island of New Zealand, and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers 112.68 square kilometres (43.51 sq mi) of the group's 113.31 km2 (43.75 sq mi), 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 southernmost extremity of New Zealand. The island is mountainous, rising to over 500 metres (1,640 ft) in the south. A long fiord, Perseverance Harbour, nearly bisects it, opening out to sea on the east coast.
The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion, within the tundra biome, includes five remote island groups in the Pacific Ocean south of New Zealand: the Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands and Campbell Island groups of New Zealand, and Macquarie Island of Australia.
The Campbell Islands are a group of subantarctic islands, belonging to New Zealand. They lie about 600 km south of Stewart Island. The islands have a total area of 113 km2 (44 sq mi), consisting of one big island, Campbell Island, and several small islets, notably Dent Island, Isle de Jeanette Marie, Folly Island, Jacquemart Island, and Monowai Island. Ecologically, they are part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion. The islands are one of five subantarctic island groups collectively designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Adams Island is the second largest island of New Zealand's Auckland Islands archipelago.
Enderby Island is part of New Zealand's uninhabited Auckland Islands archipelago, south of mainland New Zealand. It is situated just off the northern tip of Auckland Island, the largest island in the archipelago.
The Campbell shag, also known as the Campbell Island shag, is a species of bird in the family Phalacrocoracidae. It is endemic to Campbell Island. Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores. It is a medium-sized bird, around 63 cm in length, with a wingspan of 105 cm, weighing between 1.6 – 2 kg. They only breed on Campbell Island and forage within 10 km of the island. Its unique, looped head and elongated beak allow to easily feed on shellfish and marine invertebrates. This is done through foraging dive cycles of high speed and efficiency.
The Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand (RBCSNZ) was founded in 1988 to conserve, record and promote rare livestock breeds with the aim of maintaining genetic diversity within livestock species. The area of coverage is broad, and includes poultry as well as camelids, cattle, chinchillas, deer, donkeys, goats, horses, pigs, rabbits and sheep.
The Auckland Island pig is a feral landrace of domestic pig found on subantarctic Auckland Island, New Zealand. Its ancestors have inhabited the island since 1807, and, as an invasive species, has had a considerable environmental impact.
The feral goat is the domestic goat when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in many parts of the world.
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 harbour is sometimes referred to as the Adams Straits.
Gerald Stanley Clark was a New Zealand sailor, writer and ornithologist. He is notable for his ornithological research work on subantarctic islands and for his circumnavigation of Antarctica in his self-built yacht Totorore.
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.
Azorella polaris, commonly known as the Macquarie Island cabbage, is a species of flowering plant usually placed in the family Araliaceae or Apiaceae and only very distantly related to cabbage. It is a megaherb, growing up to about a metre in height, native to the subantarctic islands of New Zealand and to Australia’s Macquarie Island.
The 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 decision to do so was made by the New Zealand Government's War Cabinet in December 1940, with the program terminating at the end of the Pacific War in 1945.
Seabirds include some of the most threatened taxa anywhere in the world. For example, of extant albatross species, 82% are listed as threatened, endangered, or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The two leading threats to seabirds are accidental bycatch by commercial fishing operations and introduced mammals on their breeding islands. Mammals are typically brought to remote islands by humans either accidentally as stowaways on ships, or deliberately for hunting, ranching, or biological control of previously introduced species. Introduced mammals have a multitude of negative effects on seabirds including direct and indirect effects. Direct effects include predation and disruption of breeding activities, and indirect effects include habitat transformation due to overgrazing and major shifts in nutrient cycling due to a halting of nutrient subsidies from seabird excrement. There are other invasive species on islands that wreak havoc on native bird populations, but mammals are by far the most commonly introduced species to islands and the most detrimental to breeding seabirds. Despite efforts to remove introduced mammals from these remote islands, invasive mammals are still present on roughly 80% of islands worldwide.
Gibson's Albatross, also known as the Auckland Islands wandering albatross or Gibson's wandering albatross, is a large seabird in the great albatross group of the albatross family. It is found principally in the Auckland Islands archipelago of New Zealand, foraging in the Tasman Sea, with most individuals nesting on Adams Island. The common name and trinomial commemorate John Douglas Gibson, an Australian amateur ornithologist who studied albatrosses off the coast of New South Wales for thirty years.
Megaherbs are a group of herbaceous wildflowers growing in the New Zealand subantarctic islands and on the other subantarctic islands. They are characterised by their great size, with huge leaves and very large and often unusually coloured flowers, which have evolved as an adaptation to the harsh weather conditions on the islands. They suffer from overgrazing due to introduced mammals.
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