Nature and Science
Cocos (Keeling) Islands Coastline
Red-footed Boobies
Masked Boobies
Photos courtesy of Fusion Films
Pulu Keeling National Park has a number of unique features, including an internationally significant seabird rookery and an historic ship wreck, which make it of particular international importance.
North Keeling Island remains one of the few examples in the Indian Ocean of a seabird colony habitat relatively unaffected by feral animals and only rarely visited by humans, and contains rare ecosystems now absent from other islands of the Cocos (keeling) group. Seventeen of the 25 bird species recorded on the island actually breed there. The dominant bird species, the Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), maintains one of the largest breeding colonies in the world on the island. Fourteen species of birds recorded on the island are listed in the Japan-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement or the China-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement. The island is the only locality where the endemic and endangered Cocos Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus phillipensis andrewsi) is found.
The island is home to a number of land crabs including the robber crab (Birgus latro) which is considered vulnerable to extinction internationally, and is used by the Green and Hawksbill turtles which are both classified as vulnerable. The Green turtle has been recorded breeding on the island.
North Keeling Island contains rare ecosystems now absent from other islands of the Cocos (Keeling) group. It can be used as a source of seed material for revegetation of the southern atoll, and a gene pool for recolonisation of the southern atoll.
North Keeling Island is significant to studies of island biogeography because of its evolution in isolation and it continues to be a site of scientific research.
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