Cat Island (Tasmania)
Island in Tasmania, Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cat Island, part of the Babel Group within the Furneaux Group, is a 39-hectare (96-acre) unpopulated granite island, located in Bass Strait, lying off the east coast of Flinders Island, Tasmania, south of Victoria, in south-eastern Australia.[1][2][3]
An aerial photo of Cat Island, bottom right; with the much larger Babel Island pictured in the background. Storehouse Island is pictured bottom centre. | |
  Location within Tasmania | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bass Strait |
| Coordinates | 39°57′S 148°21′E |
| Archipelago | Babel Group, part of the Furneaux Group |
| Area | 39 ha (96 acres) |
| Administration | |
Australia | |
| State | Tasmania |
| Demographics | |
| Population | unpopulated |
Cat Island is part of the Babel Island Group Important Bird Area.[4]
Fauna
Seabirds and waders recorded as breeding on the island include little penguin, short-tailed shearwater, silver gull, Pacific gull, crested tern, sooty oystercatcher, pied oystercatcher and Australasian gannet. Resident reptiles include White's skink and tiger snake. The rakali has also been recorded on the island.[3]
The historically important breeding colony of Australasian gannets, with an estimated 5,000-10,000 birds at the beginning of the 20th century, declined to extinction by the mid-1980s as a result of, at first, human intrusion, followed by fires, disturbance and, finally, predation by white-bellied sea-eagles.[3]
