Zoologia Caboverdiana Vol. 3, No. 2 (2012)
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- Cape Verde Islands (3)
- Buteo bannermani (1)
- Cape Verde buzzard (1)
- Cetacea (1)
- Chioninia coctei (1)
- Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1)
- Isistius spp. (1)
- João da Silva Feijó (1)
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- Royal Cabinet of Natural History of Ajuda (1)
In the North Atlantic, the waters surrounding the Cape Verde Islands are a "potential hot spot" for cookiecutter shark Isistius spp. interactions with cetaceans. These occurrences were recently identified by the improved efforts of researchers to document cetacean strandings in the Cape Verde archipelago, as well as by the photo identification efforts of live whales and dolphins. The documentation of individual and mass stranding events confirmed that cookiecutter shark interactions with cetaceans in Cape Verde seas are remarkably common.
On 6 October 2012, the remains of a frigatebird were recovered at João Barrosa beach (16°01.387’N, 022°43.610’W), southeastern Boavista, Cape Verde Islands. The carcass had been found in mid September 2012, during a beach survey to monitor loggerhead turtle nesting activity in the area and was then buried in the sand. The field assistant of the Cabo Verde Natura 2000 turtle project who found the bird indicated the location of the corpse to the first author. His description of the bird allowed it to be identified as an adult female magnificent frigatebird Fregata magnificens Mathews, 1914. The remains consisted of numerous black and white feathers as well as several bones, including the skull, thorax and wing bones, which are preserved at the Cabo Verde Natura 2000 headquarters at Sal Rei, Boavista. Some feathers, together with remains of an egg and tissue of a mummified male found at Ilhéu de Baluarte in 2005 (see below), were deposited at the Centro de Análise Molecular, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CMA/CIBIO), Vairão, Portugal.
On 30 November 2012, we observed a white presumed Cape Verde buzzard Buteo bannermani Swann, 1919 in the northern mountains of Santo Antão, Cape Verde Islands. The bird was defending a territory on the west side of the road between Corda and Vila da Ribeira Grande. Judging from the amount of time it spent in aerial display, it probably concerned a male. RP managed to make a series of photos, including some of the bird perched at a distance of ca. 60 m (Fig. 1 & 2). In these it was possible to confirm that the eyes were dark and neither pale nor reddish, identifying the bird as an adult and excluding the possibility of an albino. Its apparent mate was a bird of normal appearance.
The diet of feral cats Felis catus on Santa Luzia, Cape Verde Islands, was studied. A total of 147 prey items were identified during the analysis of 26 scat groups collected during the summer of 2010. House mouse Mus musculus was the most important prey, both in percentage of biomass and number of preys consumed (89.7% and n= 117, respectively). Reptiles were the second most important prey, represented by one skink species (Chioninia stangeri) and an unidentified gecko species. The remainder of the identified prey consisted of one bird species (Passer iagoensis) and one undetermined Tettigoniidae species (Insecta). No endangered species were identified in scats of this introduced predator, but future surveys must be carried out to further avoid threats to the island's biodiversity.
An old specimen of the extinct giant skink Chioninia coctei (Duméril & Bibron, 1839), endemic to the islets of Branco and Raso, Cape Verde Islands, in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, had been misidentified as Leiolopisma telfairii (Desjardin, 1831). The specimen, acquired by the Leiden Museum from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris during the 19th century, is demonstrated to be one of the specimens of C. coctei sent to Portugal by João da Silva Feijó during the 1780s. It was brought from Lisbon to Paris by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire during the Napoleonic invasion in 1808. Together with the specimen remaining in the Paris museum, it is the oldest known of the species. The likely pathway of dispersal, as well as the general characteristics of the specimen, are discussed.