The Lesser Kuril Chain (, or 小千島列島), is an island chain in the northwestern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The islands are administered as part of Yuzhno-Kurilsky District of

Sakhalin Oblast Sakhalin Oblast ( rus, Сахали́нская о́бласть, r=Sakhalinskaya oblastʹ, p=səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Russian ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and many sources consider the chain to be geographically part of the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

. However, the Japanese government claims that these islands are not part of the Kuril Islands and are instead minor islands of

Hokkaido Prefecture is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

. The Lesser Kuril Chain lies northeast of the Nemuro Peninsula in

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

, near the southwestern end of the Greater Kuril Chain, from which it is separated by the South Kuril Strait. It consists of Shikotan, the

Habomai Islands The Habomai Islands (; ) are a group of uninhabited islets (but for the Russian guards stationed there) in the southernmost Kuril Islands. The islands have been under Soviet/Russian administration since the Invasion of the Kuril Islands, 1945 in ...

and several small islands lying close to the Shikotan. The chain parallels, but is much shorter than, the Greater Kuril Chain, from which the Lesser Kurils lie to the south-east. The length of the Lesser Kuril island chain is about , and the total land area is . The islands' highest point is a mountain summit on Shikotan, above sea level. The islands of the chain, along with neighbouring

Kunashir Kunashir Island (; ; ), possibly meaning ''Black Island'' or ''Grass Island'' in Ainu language, Ainu, is the southernmost island of the Kuril Islands. The island has been under Russia, Russian administration since the end of World War II, when S ...

, have been recognised as

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

s (IBAs) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because they support populations of various

threatened A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

bird species, including many

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s and

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

References

Islands of the Kuril Islands Important Bird Areas of the Kurile Islands Seabird colonies {{SakhalinOblast-geo-stub

See also

References