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21th January 09 - Cuverville Island

Cuverville Island lies in the Errera Channel, between Rongé Island and the Arctowski Peninsula. The island was discovered by Gerlache’s Belgica expedition of 1897-9, and named after a vice-admiral in the French Navy. This small rocky island has vertical cliffs measuring 200 m (650 ft) in elevation with extensive moss cover. Both species of Antarctica's 'flowering' plants may be found here; Deschampsia antarctica, a hairgrass, and the Colobanthus quitensis, a pearlwort. Cuverville Island is home to the largest gentoo penguin colony in the region (4,800 breeding pairs), along with southern giant petrels, kelp gulls, Antarctic terns, snowy sheathbills and south polar skuas.

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