Kiaone Islands
The Kiaone Islands are two sandstone islands that belong to the Mauritanian National Park Banc d'Arguin . They are five kilometers from the coast; the distance between the two islands is one nautical mile. At low tide the two islands are only separated by tidal flats . The larger of the two islands, Grande Kiaone or Kiaone West, measures 1200 by 300 meters and protrudes between 12 and 15 meters from the Atlantic Ocean. Three sides of the island have steep slopes, the fourth, eastern side ends in a scree slope. The smaller island, also called Petite Kiaone, measures only 450 by 50 meters and juts 6 meters out of the Atlantic Ocean. As part of the national park founded in 1976, they have been a Ramsar area since 1982 and have been a World Heritage Site since 1989.
According to the zoologists Alan Johnson and Frank Cèzilly, the small group of islands has one of the world's most unusual breeding colonies of pink flamingos . These breed on the bare rock high above sea level. The breeding colony was only discovered in 1957 and was the first evidence of breeding of greater flamingos for Mauritania. Since then, breeding colonies of thousands of breeding pairs have been observed for these islands. In April 1999, there were 13,060 breeding pairs on Grande Kianone and 9,718 young birds in June of the same year, which divided into two crèches .
Greater flamingos aren't the only birds that breed on the Kiaone Islands. Big terns , king terns , cormorants, gray herons and spoonbills also breed on these islands.
literature
- Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8
supporting documents
- ^ Alan Johnson and Frank Cézilly: The Greater Flamingo . T & AD Poyser, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7136-6562-8 , p. 235
Coordinates: 20 ° 36 ′ 12 ″ N , 16 ° 27 ′ 41 ″ W.