Steeple Jason Island is a small island west of

Grand Jason Island Grand Jason Island (sometimes known as "Grand Island") is a small island located at , east of the Steeple Jason Island. It is a part of the Jason Islands in the Falkland Islands, and along with Steeple Jason it is one of the "Islas los Salvajes" ...

. It is a part of the

Jason Islands The Jason Islands (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Islas Sebaldes'') are an archipelago in the Falkland Islands, lying to the far north-west of West Falkland. Three of the islands, Steeple Jason, Grand Jason and Clarke's Islet, are private nature ...

in the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

. Along with Grand Jason, it is one of the "Islas los Salvajes" in Spanish (the Jasons being divided into two groups in that language).

Population and geography

None of the Jason Islands has ever been properly inhabited. Steeple Jason was used for sheep grazing up until the 1980s. There are the remains of a shearing shed on the island. There is also Steinhart Station, a field research station on the island, built in 2003 for monitoring wildlife. The island is surrounded by low-lying land around the shore which quickly rises to a steep peak, hence the island's name. The island was formerly owned by

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

philanthropist

Michael Steinhardt Michael H. Steinhardt (born December 7, 1940) is an American billionaire Hedge fund, hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and former antiquities collector. In 1967, he founded a hedge fund, Steinhardt Partners which he ran until he closed it in 19 ...

, who later donated it to the

Bronx Zoo The Bronx Zoo (also historically the Bronx Zoological Park and the Bronx Zoological Gardens) is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and the largest Metropolis, metropol ...

-based

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a global 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, with a mission to save "wildlife and wild places across the globe". Founded in ...

Wildlife

Steeple Jason is home to the largest colony of

black-browed albatross The black-browed albatross (''Thalassarche melanophris''), also known as the black-browed mollymawk,Robertson, C. J. R. (2003) is a large seabird of the albatross family Diomedeidae; it is the most widespread and common member of its family. T ...

es in the world. Over 70% of the global population of black-browed albatross breed in the Falkland Islands. Other birdlife includes

southern rockhopper penguin The western rockhopper penguin (''Eudyptes chrysocome''), traditionally known as the southern rockhopper penguin, is a species of rockhopper penguin that is sometimes considered distinct from the northern rockhopper penguin. It occurs in subanta ...

Magellanic penguin The Magellanic penguin (''Spheniscus magellanicus'') is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Patagonia, including Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands, with some bird migration, migrating to Brazil and Uruguay, where they are occas ...

gentoo penguin The gentoo penguin ( ) (''Pygoscelis papua'') is a penguin species (or possibly a species complex) in the genus ''Pygoscelis'', most closely related to the Adélie penguin (''P. adeliae'') and the chinstrap penguin (''P. antarcticus''). The earl ...

slender-billed prion The slender-billed prion (''Pachyptila belcheri'') or thin-billed prion, is a species of petrel, a seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is found in the southern oceans. Taxonomy The slender-billed prion was species description, formally ...

s, striated caracaras and tussac-birds. The Magellanic penguin is near the southern part of its range here, but the more cold-tolerant gentoo also occurs substantially south into

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. The sole mammalian life is marine, e.g. sea lions and

fur seal Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae. They are much more closely related to sea lions than Earless seal, true seals, and share with them external ears (Pinna (anatomy ...

s. Large beds of

kelp Kelps are large brown algae or seaweeds that make up the order (biology), order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus, genera. Despite its appearance and use of photosynthesis in chloroplasts, kelp is technically not a plant but a str ...

surround the island, and the land is covered in grasses common to the other Falkland Islands, such as tussac grass. Birds and other wildlife on Steeple Jason Island are in many cases under threat, chiefly due to

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

in the South Atlantic Ocean over the last century.Wildlife Conservation Society. 2008

References

* John Fowler. 1999
''Steeple Jason Island, Falkland Islands''
* ''

The Blue Planet ''The Blue Planet'' is a British nature documentary series created and co-produced as a co-production between the BBC Natural History Unit and Discovery Channel. It premiered on 12 September 2001 in the United Kingdom. It is narrated by David ...

'',

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, 2001. * C. Michael Hogan. 2008
''Magellanic Penguin'', GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg
* Alex Kirby. 2002
BBC: ''Safe Haven for albatrosses'' (6 March 2002)
* Wildlife Conservation Society. 2008
''WCS in the Falkland Islands''

Footnotes

{{Falkland Islands topics, state=collapsed Jason Islands Uninhabited islands of the Falkland Islands Seabird colonies Penguin colonies