Chatham Islands (British Columbia)

Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands

Location of Chatham Islands in British Columbia

Coordinates: 48°26′00″N 123°15′00″W / 48.43333°N 123.25000°W / 48.43333; -123.25000Coordinates: 48°26′00″N 123°15′00″W / 48.43333°N 123.25000°W / 48.43333; -123.25000
Country Canada
Province British Columbia

The Chatham Islands are a group of islands off the east coast of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada. All of the islands above the high tide mark (except the Alpha Islets ecological reserve) are in Chatham Islands Indian Reserve No. 4, under the control of the Songhees First Nation. Chatham Islands foreshore - defined as the land between low tide and the beginning of land based vegetation - is provincial Crown Land.

The Chatham Islands were named in 1846 by surveyors in honour of HMS Chatham, the escort ship of HMS Discovery, the ship of 18th-century British Explorer Captain George Vancouver on his voyage to chart the coastline of British Columbia between 1792 and 1794 (the Vancouver Expedition).[1] The adjacent Discovery Island was named after the Discovery.

Around 2012, a coastal gray wolf (Canis lupus) from a specialized population that swims between the islands stretching from southeast Alaska to British Columbia,[2][3] apparently wandered through or near Victoria, and swam to the Chatham Islands where it has lived ever since. The wolf feeds mostly on seals and his howling is sometimes heard by residents of the British Columbia capital.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ G. P. V. Akrigg; Helen B. Akrigg (1997). British Columbia Place Names. UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-0637-4.
  2. ↑ Astrid V. Stronen, Erin L. Navid, Michael S. Quinn, Paul C. Paquet, Heather M. Bryan, Christopher T. Darimont (2014). "Population genetic structure of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in a marine archipelago suggests island-mainland differentiation consistent with dietary niche". BMC Ecology. 14 (11). Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  3. ↑ Susan McGrath (October 1, 2015). "In Search of the Elusive Sea Wolf Along Canada's Rugged Coast". National Geographic. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  4. ↑ Rosemary Counter (March 12, 2017). "The ‘rock star’ wolf of Juan de Fuca". Maclean's. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
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