To the End of the Earth – South Georgia and the Falkland Islands
Please note that this meeting will be online.
Presenter: Bob Lewis
Once a whaling and then a sealing station, South Georgia has one of the richest concentrations of life on the planet. Thousands of penguins, albatross, petrels and other pelagic birds nest here, but their survival was threatened by rats, introduced by seafarers. The UK undertook a rat eradication project which was very successful, and now the population of some of the more endangered island birds is increasing.
This was a Cheeseman Tour Hanno and I took in 2012 aboard a Russian vessel that spent two weeks circling the 100 mile long island. We’ll look at many of the colonial nesting birds of South Georgia, with a peek at a few Chilean birds at the start, and some Falkland birds at the end.