Taylor Rookery (30158)
Antarctica, Antarctica
Site overview
KBA status: confirmed
Year of last assessment: 2015
National site name: Taylor Rookery
Central coordinates: Latitude: -67.4536, Longitude: 60.8862
System: marine, terrestrial
Elevation (m): 0 to 60
Area of KBA (km2): 0.26056
Protected area coverage (%): 70.84
KBA classification: Global/Regional TBD
Legacy site: Yes
Site details
Site description: Taylor Rookery is an Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) colony that breeds on a small headland of predominantly metamorphic rock located on the eastern side of Taylor Glacier, Mawson Coast, MacRobertson Land. The headland is located on the southwestern coast of a bay enclosed by the Colbeck Archipelago in the east, Taylor Glacier in the west and permanent continental ice of the Mawson Coast in the south. The headland is ~0.8 km by ~0.4 km in size, with hills rising up to ~60 m in the south, north of which a short valley extends ~400 m to the coast. Several small melt lakes are present in the shallow valley, which in winter are frozen and covered by snow. Taylor Rookery is one of only two known extant sites where Emperor Penguins breed entirely on land (the other is at Amundsen Bay, East Antarctica, and a third site at IBA Emperor Island, Dion Islands is no longer occupied). Taylor Rookery was specially protected in 1966 to safeguard the largest known Emperor Penguin colony breeding on land. The IBA qualifies on the basis of the Emperor Penguin colony present and coincides with the boundary of ASPA No. 101. The nearest permanent station is Mawson (AUS), ~ 85 km to the east in Holme Bay, Mawson Coast.
Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance because it meets one or more previously established criteria and thresholds for identifying sites of biodiversity importance (including Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas, Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, and Key Biodiversity Areas)
Additional biodiversity: The Emperor Penguin colony breeds on level surfaces covered by snow usually in the central valley of the rock headland. Population counts were conducted intermittently from the mid-1950s (Budd 1962) until the mid-1980s (Horne 1983). During the early period, the population averaged 3684 ± 492, while from 1988-2010, the population averaged only 2927 ±320 breeding pairs (Robertson et al . 2013). The reasons for this decrease of ~20 % are unknown. Other bird species noted by Bonner & Smith (1985) as breeding at Taylor Rookery include Snow Petrel ( Pagodroma nivea ), Wilson's Storm-petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ) and South Polar Skuas ( Catharacta maccormicki ), although the numbers and source of the observations are not known. More recently, South Polar Skua breeding in the area is not confirmed in the ASPA No. 101 management plan, although they remain regularly observed. Non-bird biodiversity: None known.
Delineation rationale: Coincides with ASPA boundary.
Threats
Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: None known. The site has been specially protected for almost 50 years, and visits to this colony have been both infrequent and strictly controlled since designation of the protected area.
Additional information
References: ASPA No. 101 Taylor Rookery, Mac.Robertson Land: Management Plan (2010). Bonner, N. & Smith, R.I.L. (eds) 1985. Conservation areas in the Antarctic. SCAR, Cambridge. Budd, G.M. 1961. The biotopes of emperor penguin rookeries. Emu 61: 171-89. Budd, G.M. 1962. Population studies in rookeries of the Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 139: 365-88. Horne, R.S.C. 1983. The distribution of penguin breeding colonies on the Australian Antarctic Territory, Heard Island, the McDonald Islands and Macquarie Island. ANARE Research Notes 9. Robertson, G. 1992. Population size and breeding success of Emperor Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) at the Auster and Taylor Glacier colonies, Mawson Coast, Antarctica. Emu 92: 62-71. Robertson, G., Wienecke, B., Emmerson, L. & Fraser, A.D. 2013. Long-term trends in the population size and breeding success of Emperor Penguins at the Taylor Glacier colony, Antarctica. Polar Biology 37(2): 251-259. doi:10.1007/s00300-013-1428-z