---
title: "ACAP Breeding Sites, No. 1.  The Bounty Islands of New Zealand"
---

# ACAP Breeding Sites, No. 1.  The Bounty Islands of New Zealand

![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Bounty_Islands_1 Aleks Terauds low res.jpg)

 The [Bounty Islands](http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/land-and-freshwater/offshore-islands/new-zealands-subantarctic-islands/bounty-islands/) are a small archipelago of 22 wave-battered islands, islets and rock stacks with a combined area of 135 ha approximately 670 km south-east of New Zealand.  A Nature Reserve, they form part of a [World Heritage Site](http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/877).

 [![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Bounty_Islands_2 Aleks Terauds low res.jpg)](http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/land-and-freshwater/offshore-islands/new-zealands-subantarctic-islands/bounty-islands/)

 Although almost completely bereft of vegetation, the Bounties are home to a multitude of wildlife including New Zealand Fur Seals *Arctocephalus forsteri*, albatrosses, penguins, cormorants and a variety of smaller petrels.

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Bounty_Islands_3 Aleks Terauds low res.jpg)

 The islands are the World’s main breeding ground for the ACAP-listed and [Vulnerable](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3962) Salvin’s Albatross *Thalassarche salvini* which breeds in large colonies across the island group.  In October 2010 a photographic aerial survey of the Bounty Islands realized 41 101 annually breeding pairs ([click here](https://acap.aq/index.php/en/news/news-archive/24-2011-news-archive/872-41-000-pairs-of-salvins-albatrosses-bred-on-the-bounty-islands-in-2010)).

 [![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Bounty_Islands_4 Aleks Terauds low res.jpg)](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3962)

 With animal life filling almost every available space on the exposed parts of the Bounty Islands, Salvin’s Albatrosses and Erect Crested Penguins *Eudyptes sclateri* have learnt to live side by side. 

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Bounty_Islands_5 Aleks Terauds low res.jpg)

 Nevertheless, disagreements to occur, and the two species are surprisingly evenly matched when it comes to physical confrontations. 

 *Aleks Terauds, Australian Antarctic Division, 7 February 2013*