Pulu Keeling National Park
| Pulu Keeling National Park | |||
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| Location: | Coconut islands | ||
| Specialty: | Atoll, underwater world | ||
| Surface: | 2602 ha | ||
| Founding: | December 12, 2005 | ||
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The Pulu Keeling National Park is one of the smallest national parks in Australia . It stretches across North Keeling Island and along the island coast at a distance of 1.5 km. The 2602 hectare national park in the area of the Cocos Islands was proclaimed on December 12, 2005. It is located about 2950 km northwest of Perth in Western Australia .
The atoll is fringed by an irregularly perforated ring of atoll, which opens in the east with a lagoon to the Indian Ocean . A tidal range of about 2 m laps the reef walls and coral banks. The lagoon is partially dry.
Numerous animal species from the western Pacific live in this atoll, but coral growth is severely impaired by cyclones , lack of oxygen, El Niño and echinoderms . Since the island with its national park is far away in the ocean and has never been connected to the mainland, it has special international ecological significance.
Due to its importance, the national park is listed under the Ramsar Convention with the Australian Ramsar site number : 46.
geology
North Keeling and the Cocos Islands are located on about 5000 meters high submarine volcanoes , which are known as the Cocos Rise . They are part of a ridge that extends to Christmas Island , 900 km away . The atoll is connected to a plateau that lies at a depth of 700 to 800 meters.
North Keeling is a coral island that rises three to five meters from the sea and surrounds a shallow lagoon.
fauna
There are no mammals in Pulu Keeling National Park due to its remote location.
Sea birds
When Charles Darwin came to the Cocos Islands area in April 1836, he reported large numbers of sea birds . The coral atolls there were the only ones Darwin ever explored.
24 bird species have been counted in the national park, including eight protected rare species such as the Keeling's common rail , of which only around 750 to 1,000 specimens still exist on the island. 14 of the bird species found on North Keeling are protected by Japan , Australia , China and South Korea .
Among the seabirds is the red-footed booby , of which around 30,000 breeding pairs have been counted. Great frigate bird ( Fregata minor ) and ariel frigate bird ( Fregata ariel ) form the second largest populations in Australia and the Indian Ocean. The 71 to 80 cm tall red-billed tropical bird nests on the island's trees.
Turtles, reptiles, sea snakes, insects
On North Keeling laying green turtle ( Chelonia mydas ) and hawksbill turtle ( Eretmochelys imbricata ) from their eggs. The only species of sea snake that has been sighted in the southern atolls is the platelet sea snake ( Pelamis platurus ).
The maiden gecko ( Lepidodactylus lugubris ), a reptile up to 10.5 cm in size , feeds on insects and nectar.
There are also flies , butterflies , beetles, ants , cockroaches , weevils , ticks , mites , scorpions , termites , centipedes and mollusks on the island.
Slide Sea Snake
Maiden gecko
Green turtle
Hawksbill sea turtle
Corals, fish, mollusks, crabs, echinoderms
99 reef-forming hard corals grow in the sea area, of which 12 species are also found in Western Australia and 9 species are not found anywhere else in the eastern Indian Ocean, two of which are probably endemic.
There are 528 species of fish in the lake area, including two types of dolphins , the bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus ) and the common dolphin ( Delphinus delphis ). A single dugong was sighted a long time ago; however, these marine mammals are not native to the Cocos Islands.
600 molluscs live in the area of the Cocos Islands, 496 snails , 109 mussels , one beetle snail and four cephalopods .
There are 198 species of crustaceans and decapods in total , including the largest crustacean on earth, the palm thief , which can weigh up to 1.5 m and 4 kg. There are also three species of lobster and 13 species of barnacles in 11 genera.
98 species of echinoderms occur, some of which are eaten in Asia as trepang or bêche-de-mer .
Bottlenose dolphin
Palm thief covers a coconut
Two sea cucumbers
flora
Since North Keeling was never connected to the mainland, plant seeds could only be brought in by wind, water or birds before human settlement.
The plants in the park developed in a geological environment that is characterized by volcanism and coral growth and does not rise more than 5 meters above sea level. There are hardly any endemic plants, with the exception of Pandanus tectorius , a species of the screw tree genus .
61 types of plants were counted on the Cocos Islands, 32 of them were found in the national park, including seven plant species that are not found on the atolls to the south of the Cocos Islands.
North Keeling is divided into four vegetation zones: the pisonia - ( Pisonia grandis ), coconut palms -, velvet leaf - ( Argusia argentea ) and tea plant zone ( Pemphis acidula ). Ultimately, there are also open, grass-covered areas where the purslane wedge-head ( Sesuvium portulacastrum ) grows. The atoll is dominated by the pisonia bushes.
In the waters of the national park there are kelp forests , seagrass meadows and tropical sea plants.
Pisonia
Seed leaf
Purslane Wedge
Seaweed forest
Tourist information
If you are traveling from Australia, you must bring the usual travel documents with you. Virgin Blue airline flies weekly every Tuesday and Saturday. Different types of accommodation are offered on the inhabited islands.
Diving, snorkeling, surfing, sailing and fishing is possible in the park, but not for commercial purposes. North Keeling can only be reached by boat by swimming. Sometimes it is not possible to land due to adverse weather conditions.
Only guided tours are possible. The tourists' shoes and clothing are checked for grass seeds and pathogens.
Web links
- environment.gov.au (PDF; 2.6 MB): The Sea Turtle Resources of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Indian Ocean, Year 9 - Jan 2008, Year 10 - Jan 2009, Year 11 - Jan 2010 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ environment.gov.au ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Culture an History , in English, accessed September 13, 2005
- ↑ a b environment.gov.au : Pulu Keeling National Park: Overview , in English, accessed on September 11, 2011
- ↑ environment.gov.au : Pulu Keeling National Park. Geology , in English, accessed September 11, 2011
- ↑ a b c d environment.gov.au ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Pulu Keeling National Park. Fauna , in English, accessed September 11, 2011
- ↑ environment.gov.au ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Pulu Keeling National Park. Flora , in English, accessed September 11, 2011
- ↑ environment.gov.au ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Getting here and park information , accessed September 11, 2011
