The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF) are very varied territories.
These islands are for the most part extremely isolated, and their difficult conditions have not allowed men to settle there permanently.
They are therefore real sanctuaries for the wild fauna that reign there.
There are currently five districts within the TAAF.
Three of them, located in the southern Indian Ocean, are called French Southern Territories: the Crozet archipelago, made up of five volcanic islands located in the subantarctic zone;
the Kerguelen archipelago, made up of 300 islands;
and St. Paul and Amsterdam, two islands even further east, at the tip of the Australian plate.
The other two districts of the TAAF are Terre-Adélie, a segment of Antarctica of about 432,000 km², and the Scattered Islands of the Indian Ocean, small islands located around Madagascar.
These territories are privileged places for birds, reptiles, insects, fish and marine mammals, which live isolated from the rest of the world in sometimes hostile environments.
The southern lands, bird islands
The Crozet archipelago, the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam islands as well as the Kerguelen archipelago are the only terrestrial relays in the middle of an often raging ocean.
This makes them ideal gathering places for many ocean species, especially birds, which need dry land to reproduce.
Their most emblematic birds are certainly the penguins;
Four main species are found in Crozet and Kerguelen: the king penguin, the gentoo penguin, the rockhopper penguin and the macaroni penguin, which come together on land in summer for the mating season.
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Pinnipeds and cetaceans
These isolated lands are a paradise for pinnipeds, once widely hunted, but which became abundant again during the second half of the 20th century.
This is the case of the southern elephant seal, the largest of all seals, which can weigh up to 3.7 tons.
Cetaceans are not left out: in addition to killer whales, which come to hunt young seals and sea lions near the coast, you can observe humpback whales and blue whales, which are rarer.
In Kerguelen, there is also a small black and white marine mammal called Commerson's dolphin, which lives in groups near the coast.
Terre-Adélie, reservoir of endemic species
No land mammals live in the Terre-Adélie district, but birds and marine mammals are numerous.
Its most famous inhabitant is undoubtedly the emperor penguin, an endemic species, which is the largest of all penguins.
Pinnipeds are also well-known residents of Terre-Adélie.
The Weddell seal and the crabeater seal should be careful, as they have two major predators: the killer whale and the leopard seal.
The Scattered Islands of the Indian Ocean, refuges for tropical fauna
Located in the Mozambique Channel and in the Indian Ocean, the Scattered Islands are all surrounded by corals which constitute refuges for hundreds of species of fish.
The lagoons of Bassas da India, Europa and the Glorious Islands welcome passing animals, such as pink flamingos or sea turtles.
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