Due to heavy reconstruction of this webpage, this blog is temporary suspended to renew in this summer, it will be updated again after late-autumn, thank you for your visits in these 9 years.

25 June 2010

The very first definitives of TAAF

From left to right :
0,40 F : Brown Skua (褐賊鷗)
1,00 F & 0,50 F : Southern Rockhopper Penguin (南跳岩企鵝)
0,30 F : Light-mantled Albatross (淡額黑信天翁)
French Southern and Antarctic Territory (1956, 1959)

31st January, 2010. Martin de Vivies, Amsterdam Island

Since November of 1955, French Southern and Antarctic Territory (In French TAAF) begins to issue its own stamps. The first one, overprinted red-text on Madagascar's Long-tailed Ground Roller (長尾佛法僧) stamp which originally issued on 1954. After half year, the first new four TAAF stamps were ready to public and released on April of 1956 ; and afterwards on the December of 1959 and November of 1960, the territory released more 6 stamps. These ten stamps illustrated couple bird species of the territory and above cover was selected 4 of these stamps.

Brown Skua, as known as Great Skua is a long-haul migratory bird commonly live in tropical Atlantic and Southern Ocean regions. Except its food fishes and rotten animals, It also attacks penguin's chicken and eggs. Eastern Rockhopper Penguin is a sub-species of Rockhopper Penguin (跳岩企鵝), it is very similar with Western Rockhopper Penguin (西跳岩企鵝) but it breeds in sub-Antarctic islands of Indo-Pacific Ocean. Light-mantled Sooty Albatross is the near-threatened species also to be found in sub-Antarctic region's islands. In last 100 years, the populations decreased over 25% to 58,000 pair of birds.

Martin de Vivies is an only habitation of Amsterdam Island, where different than other islands of the territory it has mild and oceanic climate. There to be found trees and a critically endangered species Amsterdam Albatross (阿島信天翁) only have 130 populations is endemic to this island.