Great Dog Island (Tasmania)

For other places with the same name, see Great Dog Island.
Great Dog Island
Nickname: Big Dog Island

Great Dog Island (centre) from space, January 1997
Great Dog Island

Location of the Great Dog Island in Bass Strait

Geography
Location Bass Strait
Coordinates 40°18′00″S 147°54′36″E / 40.30000°S 147.91000°E / -40.30000; 147.91000[1]Coordinates: 40°18′00″S 147°54′36″E / 40.30000°S 147.91000°E / -40.30000; 147.91000[2]
Archipelago Great Dog Group, part of the Furneaux Group
Administration
Australia
State Tasmania
LGA Municipality of Flinders Island
Largest settlement Great Dog Island village (pop. 10)
Demographics
Population 10 (2014)
Pop. density 2.67 /km2 (6.92 /sq mi)

The Great Dog Island, also known as Big Dog Island, and part of the Great Dog Group within the Furneaux Group, is a 354-hectare (870-acre) granite island, located in Bass Strait, lying south of the Flinders Island and north of the Cape Barren Island, in Tasmania, in south-eastern Australia.[3][4]

The island is private property and has been severely affected by grazing livestock, fire, muttonbirding and the introduction of exotic animals.[5][6] The island is part of the Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it holds over 1% of the world populations of six bird species.[7]

Besides the Great Dog Island, other islands that comprise the Great Dog Group include the Little Green Island and Billy Goat Reefs.

Flora and fauna

Great Dog Island viewed from the air, from the east

The island’s vegetation is dominated by the grass Poa poiformis, aided by the burrowing and fertilising activities of the shearwaters in conjunction with regular burning-off. However, at the north-eastern side of the island, there is a remnant mixed forest community, rare within the Furneaux Group, of manna gum and Acacia verticillata with various species of Allocasuarina, Melaleuca and Leptospermum.

Recorded breeding seabird and wader species are short-tailed shearwater (about 300,000 pairs), white-faced storm-petrel, sooty oystercatcher and pied oystercatcher. Reptiles present include the metallic skink, spotted skink, eastern three-lined skink, eastern blue-tongued lizard, lowland copperhead and tiger snake. A native mammal recorded from the island is the rakali, along with introduced mice, rats and feral cats.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Cape Barren Island, Tasmania (Islands & Reefs)". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
  2. ↑ "Cape Barren Island, Tasmania (Islands & Reefs)". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
  3. ↑ "Great Dog Island (TAS)". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
  4. ↑ "Small Bass Strait Island Reserves. Draft Management Plan". Department of Primary Industries,Water and Environment, Tasmanian Government. October 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Hayde, Kevin Anthony (1992). "Ecology of the feral cat Felis catus on Great Dog Island". Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  6. 1 2 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
  7. ↑ "IBA: Franklin Sound Islands". Birdata. Birds Australia. Retrieved 22 June 2011.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.