Flora and Fauna
The only plant species found on the island is the succulent Sarcocornia quinqueflora. Recorded breeding seabird species include Fairy Prion, Pacific Gull, Silver Gull, Kelp Gull, Black-faced Cormorant, Australasian Gannet, and Shy Albatross. Australian Fur Seals use the island as a regular haul-out site while New Zealand Fur Seals visit occasionally.
Remarkably, the tiny, windswept island is the only known habitat of a species of lizard, the Pedra Branca Skink, Niveoscincus palfreymani, which has survived for an estimated 15,000 years since Pedra Branca was separated from the Tasmanian mainland. An estimated 400 individuals survive, but the species is listed as Vulnerable.
Read more about this topic: Pedra Branca (Tasmania)
Famous quotes containing the words flora and/or fauna:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)