Big South Cape Island
| Big South Cape Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 14 '28 " S , 167 ° 23' 55" O | |
|
||
| length | 5.5 km | |
| width | 2.5 km | |
| surface | 9.39 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 235 m | |
Big South Cape Island ( Māori : Taukihepa ) is an island southwest of Stewart Island near the southernmost point of the New Zealand heartland.
The island, which is about 5 km west of the South West Cape and administratively part of the Southland region , is 939 hectares and measures 235 meters at its highest point.
Northwest of the island is the main group of the southwest range of the Titi Islands . Immediately south of the island is Poutama Island , to the north are Pukeweka Island and Rerewhakaupoko Island or Solomon Island as well as the so-called "Boat Group" of the southwest chain of the Titi Islands.
The island, along with Pukeweka and Rerewhakaupoko, was the last refuge of the South Island subspecies of the tieke or saddle bird. House rats also reached Taukihepa and its neighboring islands in 1963, presumably with boats from "Mutton Birders", who were on the hunt for shearwaters (Titi or Muttonbird) . Only a speedy rescue operation by the New Zealand Wildlife Service (now the Department of Conservation ) saved the South Island subspecies of the tieke from extinction, while the rats fell victim to local populations of the South Island snipe, wood panther and greater New Zealand bat. 36 Tieke were brought from Taukihepa to two small, rat-free islands, were able to establish themselves there and have since been settled on other islands.
literature
- New Zealand Travel Atlas , Wise Maps Auckland. ISBN 0-908794-47-9 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Rodent Invasion Project - Big South Cape Island / Taukihepa . Department of Statistics - University of Auckland , archived from the original on February 19, 2013 ; accessed on January 16, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Andy Roberts, South Island Saddleback Recovery Plan, 1994 (PDF 213 kB)