page_title: Tristan da Cunha
section_title: Land
hierarchical_section_title: Tristan da Cunha / Flora and fauna / Fauna / Land
caption_attribution_description: English&#58; «&#160;Nesocichla eremita&#160;» = Nesocichla eremita (Tristan Thrush)Français&#58; «&#160;Nesocichla eremita&#160;» = Nesocichla eremita (Grive de Tristan da Cunha)
context_page_description: Tristan da Cunha, colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 1,511 miles off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, 1,343 miles from Saint Helena and 2,166 miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands.
  The territory consists of the inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha, which has a diameter of roughly 11 kilometres and an area of 98 square kilometres, and the wildlife reserves of Gough Island and Inaccessible Island and the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands. As of October 2018, the main island has 250 permanent inhabitants who all carry British Overseas Territories citizenship. The other islands are uninhabited, except for the South African personnel of a weather station on Gough Island.
  Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory with its own constitution. There is no airstrip of any kind on the main island; the only way of travelling in and out of Tristan is by boat, a six-day trip from South Africa.
context_section_description: Tristan is primarily known for its wildlife. The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because there are 13 known species of breeding seabirds on the island and two species of resident land birds. The seabirds include northern rockhopper penguins, Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses, sooty albatrosses, Atlantic petrels, great-winged petrels, soft-plumaged petrels, broad-billed prions, grey petrels, great shearwaters, sooty shearwaters, Tristan skuas, Antarctic terns and brown noddies. Tristan and Gough Islands are the only known breeding sites in the world for the Atlantic petrel. Inaccessible Island is also the only known breeding ground of the spectacled petrel. The Tristan albatross is known to breed only on Gough and Inaccessible Islands: all nest on Gough, except for one or two pairs which nest on Inaccessible Island.
  The endemic Tristan thrush, also known as the "starchy", occurs on all of the northern islands and each has its own subspecies, with Tristan birds being slightly smaller and duller than those on Nightingale and Inaccessible. The endemic Inaccessible Island rail, the smallest extant flightless bird in the world, is found only on Inaccessible Island. In 1956, eight Gough moorhens were released at Sandy Point on Tristan, and have subsequently colonised the island. No birds of prey breed on Tristan da Cunha, but the Amur falcon occasionally passes through the area on its migrations, thus putting it on the island's bird list.
  A non-native species of house mice that have evolved to be 50% larger than average house mice have adapted to Tristan da Cunha. They are thought to have been accidentally introduced by 19th century seal hunters who would dock on the islands. These mice have adapted by consuming sea bird eggs and chicks (as they nest on the ground), killing an estimated 2 million chicks annually pushing the species to extinction. Gathering at night in groups of 9 or 10, the mice gather at the bird's nest to feast. With no natural predators, the invasive mice population is able to expand by producing new generations twice a year. With no natural predators and a high generational output rate, there is no way to control the growth of the invasive mice population. The native bird species have slower generational output and exposure to the islands.
  Mitigation plans in order to eradicate or decrease the invasive rodent population on the islands was seriously discussed in March 2008 taking into consideration the islands' community. Discussion of aerial bait drop on Tristan brought up concerns of health and safety of the children, livestock and the security of the water supply. Because the proposed plans for mitigation were not fully agreed upon by the Tristan community, eradication methods were shelved until 2019.
  In order to prevent the growth of the invasive mice population and extinction of the Albatross bird species, a 2019 Gough Island mouse eradication project was announced (Grundy, 2018). The RSPB and Tristan da Cunha Government have partnered to spread cereal pellets with rodenticide bait across the Gough Island's, in hopes to eradicate the invasive mice population. This solution plan may seem simple but can become complex when discussing dispersal methods, which is predicted to be by helicopter, because of the island's remote location and harsh weather conditions. In areas that are hard to reach by helicopter, pellets will be scattered by hand. The goal of this operation is to restore Tristan da Cunha back to its natural state, ensuring it will still be one of the world's most important seabird nesting sites. Other methods that may be more simple, such as introducing cats, would pose a greater threat to the fragile bird populations as they would likely to prey on the birds as well and cats have already been eradicated from the islands.
caption: Nesocichla eremita, the Tristan thrush.
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