Tenararo


Tenararo is the smallest atoll in the Acteon Group in the southeastern part of the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. It is administratively a part of the Gambier Islands. It is uninhabited.

Geography

Tenararo is located west of Vahanga, the nearest island, west of the Gambier Islands and southeast of Tahiti. It is a circular atoll with a land area of and a land area of. The atoll has a landing place on its NW side between the small boulders which encumber the reef. There is no entrance to the lagoon.

History

The first recorded sighting of this atoll was made during the Spanish expedition of the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós on 5 February 1606 under the name Las Cuatro Coronadas, however these observations were not fully documented. As such, the first unambiguous approach to the island was made on 14 March 1828 by the explorer Hugh Cuming in his ship the Discoverer captained by Samuel Grimwood. The next visit was in 1833 by navigator Thomas Ebrill on his merchant vessel Amphitrite and again in 1837 by Lord Edward Russell, commander of the H.M.S Actaeon, the name given to the group. It was previously owned by a man named Captain Nicholas but was redeemed in 1934.
In the nineteenth century, Tenararo became a French territory, with a population of about 20 Aboriginal people in 1850.

Flora and fauna

The atoll is an important habitat for many endangered species. Species such as the Polynesian ground dove, atoll fruit dove, Tuamotu sandpiper, bristle-thighed curlew and Murphy's petrel live on the island. The atoll is free of introduced mammalian predators, making it an essential conservational habitat.