Kenbokki Island
Japan · Asia
About
Kenbokki Island (嶮暮帰島, Kenbokki-tō) is an uninhabited island in Hamanaka, Hokkaidō, Japan. The island, with a 4.5-kilometer coastline, forms part of Akkeshi Prefectural Natural Park. The name is derived from the Ainu kene-pok or "beneath the alder" (Alnus japonica). During studies in 1999, four species of mammal (long-clawed shrew, grey-sided vole, harbour seal, and visiting sika deer) and forty-one species of birds were recorded on the island; there were no amphibians or reptiles. Of the birds, Leach's storm petrel (some twenty thousand pairs), Japanese cormorant, Japanese snipe, slaty-backed gull, and common reed bunting were identified as breeding on Kenbokki. Flora include Gentiana triflora var. japonica (エゾリンドウ), Hemerocallis esculenta, and lily-of-the-valley. Masanori Hata founded Mutsugorō Animal Kingdom (ムツゴロウ動物王国) after his stay on the island.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.