Fauna
Up to 60,000 Pied Imperial-pigeons breed on the islands during summer, providing a spectacle to onlookers as they return to their nests each evening after foraging for rainforest fruits in the mainland and Hinchinbrook Island. Following regular illegal shooting of the birds there during the early and mid 20th Century, the population using the islands was subject to a long protection campaign and monitoring program by conservation activists Margaret and Arthur Thorsborne. There are also breeding colonies of Bridled, Black-naped, Little, Lesser Crested and Roseate Terns. Beach Stone-curlews breed on North Island beaches. The islands have been classified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because of the global importance of the site for Pied Imperial-pigeons and Lesser Crested Terns.
Read more about this topic: Brook Islands National Park
Famous quotes containing the word fauna:
“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)