Louisa Island (Tasmania)

Louisa Island and Louisa Bay from the air
Fairy prion with egg in nesting burrow
The island is a breeding site for fairy prions

Louisa Island is an irregularly shaped 23 hectare island in part of the Maatsuyker Island Group, lying close to the southern end of the south-western coast of Tasmania.

Its highest point is 80 m above sea level and, at low tide, it is joined to the mainland by a 250 m sand spit. It is part of the Southwest National Park, and thus within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site.[1][2] The island is part of the Maatsuyker Island Group Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance as a breeding site for seabirds.[3]

Flora and fauna

The central parts of the island are lightly forested with Eucalyptus nitida and Eucalyptus ovata, with an understorey of Leptospermum scoparium and Melaleuca squarrosa. Bracken covers areas subjected to recent fires.

Recorded breeding seabird and wader species are the little penguin, short-tailed shearwater (206,000 pairs), fairy prion (400 pairs), common diving-petrel (1600 pairs), Pacific gull, sooty oystercatcher and pied oystercatcher. Mammals present include the Tasmanian pademelon and long-nosed potoroo. The Tasmanian tree skink is present.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
  2. ↑ Small Southern Islands Conservation Management Statement 2002, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, 2002, archived from the original on 2006-08-22, retrieved 2006-07-20
  3. ↑ BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Maatsuyker Island Group. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 09/08/2011.

Coordinates: 43°32′13″S 146°20′42″E / 43.53694°S 146.34500°E