Ilheu Branco

Ilheu Branco
	Satellite image
Waters	Atlantic Ocean
Archipelago	Ilhas de Barlavento
Geographical location	16 ° 39 ′ 27 " N , 24 ° 40 ′ 51" W Coordinates: 16 ° 39 ′ 27 " N , 24 ° 40 ′ 51" W
length	3.6 km
width	1.4 km
surface	3 km²
Highest elevation	327 m
Residents	uninhabited
	Location within the archipelago

The small, uninhabited island of Ilhéu Branco is part of the Cape Verde Islands .

etymology

The name of the island is derived from the Portuguese branco , which means white . This alludes to the color of the fairly common guano deposits .

geography

The small island belongs to the island group of the Ilhas de Barlavento (German windward islands ) in the north of Cape Verde. It lies between Santa Luzia in the northwest and the Ilhéu Raso in the southwest. It is around 8 kilometers to Santa Luzia in the north-northwest, and 8.5 kilometers to Ilhéu Raso in the southeast. The northwest-southeast oriented island has a longitudinal extension of 3.6 kilometers and a maximum width of 1.4 kilometers. It reaches a height of 327 meters above sea level .

geology

Ilhéu Branco is of purely volcanic origin and very similar in its structure to the neighboring island of Santa Luzia. The lava flows of the shield stage show a different, south-easterly dip. The duct systems that occur are mainly arranged in a northerly direction. The volcanic substructure of the island overlays about 124 million years old oceanic crust of the Upper Cretaceous ( Aptian ). Mainly on the leeward side, a series of alluvial fans formed in the Holocene , overlaid by isolated Aeolian dunes .

Flora and fauna

The rocks of the Ilhéu Branco are used as nesting sites by numerous species of seabirds. The main breeding season is from July to October. The yellow-billed shearwater ( Calonectris diomedea edwardsii ), the little shearwater ( Puffinus (assimilis) boydi ), the Madeira wave runner ( Oceanodroma castro ) and around 250 pairs of the frigate petrel ( Pelagodroma marina ) breed here . Other breeding bird species include the little egret ( Egretta garzetta ) and osprey ( Pandion haliaetus ), Cape Verde barn owl ( Tyto detorta ) and kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus neglectus ). Peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrinus madens ) and Cape Verde sparrow ( Passer iagoensis ) are present.

The Ilhéu Branco was also, together with the Ilhéu Raso, the home of the up to 65 centimeters large Cape Verdean giant Macroscincus coctei , a reptile. These skinks have been considered extinct since the beginning of the 20th century, and no specimens have been seen since then. The endemic giant gecko Tarentola gigas has good populations and is not yet threatened with extinction . The skinks Chioninia coctei and Chioninia stangeri also occur on the island.

Nature reserve

Because of its faunistic characteristics, the Ilhéu Branco was declared a nature reserve together with Santa Luzia and Ilhéu Raso ( Ilhas Desertas ) in 1990 .

climate

As on all the islands of Cape Verde, the Ilhéu Branco has a warm, very dry climate with little rainfall that falls between August and October, the dry season is between November and July. The temperature differences between summer and winter are small, the average temperatures in summer are around 25 degrees Celsius, the average temperatures in winter 20 degrees Celsius.

Web links

Ilhéu Branco on www.birdlife.org (English)
Cape Verdean giant skink at www.artensterben.de

Individual evidence

↑ R. Muller, M. Sdrolias, W. Roest: Age, spreading rates and spreading symmetry of the world's ocean crust . In: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems . 9 (Q04006), 2008, p. 1525-2027 .
↑ CJ Hazefoet: The birds of the Cape Verde Islands . Ed .: British Ornithologists' Union. Tring, UK 1995 (BOU Checklist no.13).
↑ HH Schleich: Last research on the Cape Verdean giant skink, Macroscincus coctei (Duméril & Bibron 1839) . In: Salamandra . tape 18 , 1982, pp. 78-85 .
^ A. Miralles, inter alia: An integrative taxonomic revision of the Cape Verdean skinks (Squamata, Scincidae) . In: Zoologica Scripta . 2010.