View source for Biology:Macauley Island

{{short description|A volcanic island in New Zealand's Kermadec Islands}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2015}}
{{Infobox islands
 | name             = Macauley Island
 | local_name       =
 | image_name       = Macauley Island.PNG
 | image_caption    = View from the north-east, 2003
 | map_image        = LocationMacauleyIsland.PNG
 | map_caption      =
 | nickname         =
 | location         = South Pacific Ocean
 | coordinates      = 30°14S, 178°26W
 | archipelago      = Kermadec Islands
 | total_islands    =
 | major_islands    =
 | area_km2         = 3.06
 | length_km        = 2.5
 | width_km         = 1.8
 | highest_mount    = Mount Haszard
 | elevation_m      = 238
 | population       = Uninhabited
 | population_as_of =
 | density_km2      =
 | ethnic_groups    =
 | country          = New Zealand
 | additional_info  = Nature Reserve
}}

'''Macauley Island''' is a [[Earth:Volcano|volcanic]] island in {{wipe|New Zealand}}'s [[Biology:Kermadec Islands|Kermadec Islands]], approximately halfway between New Zealand's North Island and Tonga in the southwest [[Earth:Pacific Ocean|Pacific Ocean]].  Its co-ordinates are {{coord|30|14|S|178|26|W|display=inline,title}}

==Geography==
Macauley Island is the second-largest of the Kermadec islands (after [[Earth:Raoul Island|Raoul Island]]), and covers an area of {{convert|3.06|km2|sqmi|3|abbr=on}}, including neighbouring Haszard Island, which is {{convert|220|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} to the east and about {{convert|5|ha|acre|abbr=on}} in area.  The island's topography is simple, being a single high-sided plateau, with the soft rock of the island prone to the formation of deep water channels.<ref name="Kerm">"[http://www.thekermadecs.org/islands Islands] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225181242/http://www.thekermadecs.org/islands |date=25 February 2015 }}", ''thekermadecs.org''. Retrieved 18 November 2014.</ref> Macauley's highest point is {{convert|238|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} Mount Haszard, and it forms part of the rim of a [[Earth:Caldera|caldera]] centred {{convert|8|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} to the north-west, atop a large [[Earth:Submarine volcano|submarine volcano]].  The volcano's last eruption was in 4360 BC ± 200 years, and was one of the largest known eruptions of the past 10,000, listed as VEI 7.

==History==
Polynesians are known to have visited the island, as evidenced by an obsidian flake found here whose source could be geochemically traced to Mayor Island / Tuhua, off Tauranga, New Zealand.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crowe |first1=Andrew |title=Pathway of the Birds |date=2018 |publisher=David Bateman Ltd |location=Auckland |page=143}}</ref>{{better source|date=June 2019|reason=Popular science, non-expert author}} Lieutenant John Watts, RN was the first European to visit Macauley and [[Earth:Curtis Island, New Zealand|Curtis]] Islands — which he named after patrons George Mackenzie Macaulay, a London merchant and alderman and friend of, and William Curtis part owner of The Lady Penrhyn along with his brother Timothy — on the ''Lady Penrhyn'' in the late 1788.<ref>Curtis was described on Sunday 1 June 1788 but not landed on as it appeared barren. Captain Sever and Mr Anstis 1st mate landed with some difficulty on Macauley Island on 1 June 1788 and hung a sealed quart bottle opposite the landing place with a note written by John Watts "Navis Lady Penrhyn 1st June 1788, Jno. Watts - Gulielmas Sever, Prost. Geo: IIId. Rex"
{{Citation
 |title=Alderman Macaulay 1750-1803 
 |url=http://www.bowyers.com/history/personalities/macaulay.php
 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130118123720/http://www.bowyers.com/history/personalities/macaulay.php
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-date=2013-01-18
 |publisher=The Worshipful Company of Bowyers 
 |accessdate=2012-02-23 
}}
</ref>  ''Lady Penrhyn'' had delivered convicts to New South Wales as part of the First Fleet and was proceeding to the north west coast of America<ref>"The Journal of Arthur Boyes Smyth: Surgeon, Lady Penrhyn 1787-1789" Aust Doc Library Sydney {{ISBN|0 908219 00 8}}</ref> to trade furs and thence to Macao.

A castaway depot was established on Macauley Island in 1889, which was regularly serviced until 1918.<ref name="Kerm"/>

==Flora and fauna==
The island is a breeding site for large numbers of black-winged and white-necked petrels.  Other seabirds recorded as breeding there include grey noddies, sooty terns, masked boobies, red-tailed tropicbirds, wedge-tailed shearwaters, Kermadec little shearwaters, Kermadec petrels and Kermadec storm-petrels. The island also holds a population of the Kermadec red-crowned parakeet.  Former populations of goats and kiore have been eradicated.<ref name=doc179>Greene ''et al''. (2004).</ref>  The island forms part of the Kermadec Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by [[Organization:BirdLife International|BirdLife International]] because it is an important site for nesting seabirds.<ref>BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Kermadec Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630122358/http://www.birdlife.org/ |date=30 June 2007 }} on 2012-02-03.</ref>

The island's flora is predominantly sedges and ferns, with [[Biology:Cyperus|Cyperus]] and [[Biology:Hypolepis (plant)|Hypolepis]] prominent.<ref name="Kerm"/>

==Conservation==
The original forest cover of the island had been burnt off and goats were introduced as food for shipwreck survivors. The goats were eradicated by the New Zealand Wildlife Service in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In order to protect the island's wildlife, Macauley is managed as a nature reserve by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC). In 2006, DOC used aerial drops of poison bait in order to remove [[Earth:Introduced species|introduced]] [[Biology:Rat|rat]]s.

==See also==
* New Zealand outlying islands
* List of volcanoes in New Zealand
* List of islands of New Zealand
* List of islands
* [[Earth:Island restoration|Island restoration]]
* [[Desert island]]

==References==

===Notes===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
*[http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/publications/journals/nzjg/1996/118/ Volcanic history of Macauley Island, Kermadec Ridge, New Zealand], Royal Society of New Zealand
*{{cite gvp|vnum=0402-021|name=Macauley Island}}
*Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand (2006) Rats removed from Macauley Island. ''Forest and Bird'' '''321''': 8.
* {{cite book |title=Status of Kermadec red-crowned parakeets and the likely effects of a proposed kiore eradication programme. Macauley Island expedition July 2002|author1=Greene, T.C. |author2=Scofield, R.P. |author3=Dilks, P.J.  |last-author-amp=yes |series= DOC Science Internal Series 179|date= July 2004|publisher= Department of Conservation, New Zealand|location= Wellington|isbn= 978-0-478-22579-2|pages= |url=http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/science-and-technical/dsis179.pdf}}

==External links==
*[http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/auckland/kermadec-islands/kermadec-islands/ Department of Conservation] - Kermadec Islands page
*[http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/05fire/logs/april15/april15.html Map of Macauley and Giggenbach submarine volcanoes]—Picture of island and article by Ian Wright, Ocean Geology, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand
*[http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/conservation-a-history/4/4 Te Ara - the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand] - "The last goat on Macauley Island"



[[Category:Island restoration]]

{{Sourceattribution|Macauley Island}}