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Îles Crozet (Crozet Island)
last update: Feb 05, 2008 04:26 PM
France
Frenchman Marc Macé Marion du Fresne discovered Îles Crozet on 23 January 1772, naming them for his second-in-command Jules Marie Crozet. The islands are divided into two groups: L'Occidental (Île aux Cochons, Îlots des Apôtres, Île des Pingouins and Brisants de l'Héroine) and L'Oriental (Île de l'Est and Île de la Possession, which is the largest of the Crozets). They cover 325 square kilometres, and they are unglaciated. The highest point, Pic Marion-Dufresne, is found on Île de l'Est and rises up to 1090 m. The Crozet's weather is usually cold, wet, windy and cloudy, but the winters are not severe. Introduced by sealers and whalers, cats, rats, rabbits and mice have damaged some of the island's ecosystems. In 1938 France declared the islands a national park, and they have the largest colonies of King Penguins in the world (more than a third of the world's King Penguin species breeds there).
