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Petit Bois Island
Petit Bois Island is a large barrier island about 10 km long located in southeastern Mississippi. The island partly shelters Mississippi Sound to the north, Horn Island to the west and Dauphin Island to the East. It is part of the Gulf Island National Seashore and is owned and managed by the National Park Service. The area has been designated as a Wilderness Area (Gulf Islands Wilderness Area) and a Mississippi Coastal Preserve. Mississippi’s largest colony of laughing gulls can be found here. Another common resident on the island is the snowy plover. The island’s beaches offer opportunities for camping, sunbathing, hiking, surfing and excellent bird watching. 
Nearest Largest City: Gulfport, Mississippi, USA Selected Characteristics: Area of Coverage: 7 km2 Width: 0.7 km Length: 10.0 km Community Structure: Petit Bois Island consists of sandy beaches and barrier island pond/lagoon complexes, with an ecological community that includes barrier island seagrass beds and high marshes, and mollusc reefs. Only a small area of slash pine forest remains near the center of the island. The island provides excellent feeding, resting and wintering habitat for numerous types of neotropical migrants and wintering waterfowl species, such as the brown pelican and cormorants. Least bitterns, mottled ducks, clapper rails, common moorhens, the least tern, the sandwich tern, the black skimmer, the Louisiana heron and the osprey are common breeders. References: Columbia Gazetteer of North America. URL: http://www.bartleby.com/69/26/P03826.html Gulf Ecological Management Site. URL: http://www.dmr.state.ms.us/Coastal%20Ecology/Gems/Petit%20Bois.htm National Park Service. URL: http://www.nps.gov/guis/ Additional Information: National Park Service - Gulf Islands Columbia Gazetteer of North America - Petit Bois Island Gulf Ecological Management Site – Petit Bois Island Coastal Preserve Keywords: Laughing gull, Snowy plover, Mollusc reef, Least bittern, Mottled duck, Clapper rail, Common moorhen, Least tern, Sandwich tern, Black skimmer, Brown pelican |
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To give proper credit to the original authors, please cite information taken from GulfBase by the original source as displayed. 
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M. Nipper, J.A. Sánchez Chávez,
and J.W. Tunnell, Jr., Editors. 2010.
GulfBase: Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research.
World Wide
Web electronic publication. http://www.gulfbase.org, 29 July 2010. |
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