Introducing animals to Iles Kerguelen

The archipelago of the lies Kerguelen is a group of volcanic islands in the Indian Ocean roughly equidistant from the Malagasy Republic, Australia and Antarctica. It is formed of around 300 islands amounting to some 7 000 km. The main island alone, usually called “Grande Terre”, covers nearly 6 000 km. Descriptions of the archipelago have been given by Paulian (1953) and Aubert de la Rue (1954). Several attempts have been made to acclimatize animals to these islands. Being entirely without terrestrial mammals they have, during recent centuries, attracted the attention of sealers and whalers, anxious to maintain a supply of fresh meat near their sealing and whaling grounds. At the beginning of this century, various attempts at economic exploitation led to the introduction of some domestic species. More recently, several similar attempts have again been made but these have sprung more from a desire to populate these empty spaces than from any systematic programme of acclimatization. The more recent introductions have extended even to the islands’ streams.