Cooper Island (South Georgia)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters". Cooper Island is a small island, Script error: No such module "convert". long, which lies at the north side of the entrance to Drygalski Fjord, off the southeast end of South Georgia. It was discovered by a British expedition under James Cook in 1775, and named for Lieutenant Robert Palliser Cooper, an officer aboard HMS Resolution.
A navigable channel, Cooper Sound, nearly Script error: No such module "convert". wide, separates Cooper Island from the coast of the main island of South Georgia. There is a small bay, Known as Cooper Bay, Script error: No such module "convert". southwest of Cape Vahsel on the mainland, and Script error: No such module "convert". northwest of Cooper Island, indenting the southeast end of South Georgia, which derives its name from Cooper Island.
The island reaches Script error: No such module "convert". at its highest point, and the upper parts of the island are above the snow line.
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Wildlife
As one of a handful of rat-free islands, Cooper Island is South Georgia's only Special Protection Area; it has large numbers of sea birds, including snow petrels, Antarctic prions, 12,000 pairs of black-browed albatross, chinstrap penguins, and 20,000 macaroni penguins. There are also a number of fur seals, and this is one of the few places where they were not hunted by humans.
The island is covered in tussock grass.
See also
- Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
- History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- List of Antarctic islands north of 60° S
- Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research