Keppel Island Isla Vigía | |
|---|---|
  Keppel Island Keppel Island shown within the Falkland Islands | |
| Coordinates:51°19′15″S59°58′07″W / 51.32083°S 59.96861°W /-51.32083; -59.96861 | |
| Country | Falkland Islands |
| Area | |
• Total | 36.26 km2 (14.00 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 341 m (1,119 ft) |
| Population (2001) | |
• Total | 0 |
| • Density | 0.0/km2 (0.0/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC−3 (FKST) |
| If shown, area and population ranks are for all islands and all inhabited islands in the Falklands respectively. | |
Keppel Island (Spanish:Isla Vigía) is one of theFalkland Islands, lying betweenSaunders andPebble islands, and nearGolding Island to the north ofWest Falkland onKeppel Sound. It has an area of 3,626 hectares (8,960 acres) and its highest point, Mt. Keppel, is 341 metres (1,119 ft) high. There is a wide, flat valley in the centre of the island with several freshwater lakes. The central valley rises steeply to the south-west, west and north. The north-east is low-lying, with a deeply indented coastline.[1]
The large population ofNorway rats on the island constitute aninvasive species. They are predators of birds that nest there, of which several species are of conservation interest.[1]
Early British settlers named the island afterAdmiral Augustus Keppel,First Lord of the Admiralty in the 18th century.[citation needed]
AnAnglicanmissionary settlement set up in the mid-19th century served someYaghan people brought there fromTierra del Fuego. They taught them farming and English, and some of the British party learnedYamana (or Yahgan). In 1885, the island was developed by European immigrants forsheep farming.[citation needed]
In the late 20th century, the island was designated as anature reserve. It has a small settlement on the east coast, but no permanent population.[citation needed]
The mission on Keppel Island was established in 1855 by theSouth American Missionary Society (then the Patagonian Mission Society), initially under CaptainWilliam Parker Snow. It operated until 1898. CaptainAllen Gardiner, founder of the society, had proposed use of this island, as a less hostile climate and environment than Tierra del Fuego, from which missionaries could gain the confidence of the Yaghan and learn their language.
From 1856, Anglican missionaries persuaded several Yaghan to move from Tierra del Fuego to Keppel Island, where they learnt farming techniques and some English. The Yahgan did not go to Keppel Island until a few years after the British built "Cranmer Station" near Committee Bay, named forThomas Cranmer, theProtestant martyr. One of the more notable visitors to Cranmer Station (in 1860) wasJemmy Button, a Yahgan who had learnt English and was taken to England as a visitor with two other Yahgans aboardHMS Beagle in 1830–31, on its first return trip.
After some setbacks, the mission succeeded in 1869 in founding another mission onTierra del Fuego, atUshuaia near the Beagle Canal, under the leadership ofWaite Stirling, who later became a bishop in the region.[2]Thomas Bridges was a young Anglican missionary who started there in 1871, having already learned the Yahgan language while on Keppel Island. He became fluent, and over a decade, wrote a Yámana grammar and dictionary containing 30,000 words. It was considered valuable for ethnological study of the people.[3]
Today, the mission bailiff's house, the chapel, and the stone walls of some of the Yaghan dwellings remain intact on Keppel Island. Some stone walls have been used to provide foundations for present-day buildings. The ruins arelisted buildings and represent amongst the oldest in the islands.[4]
Keppel Island has been identified byBirdLife International as anImportant Bird Area (IBA). Birds for which the site is of conservation significance includeFalkland steamer ducks,ruddy-headed geese,gentoo penguins (1250 breeding pairs)southern rockhopper penguins (780 pairs),Magellanic penguins,black-browed albatrosses (1800 pairs) andwhite-bridled finches.[1]
| International | |
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| National | |
