The collection of birds from Mozambique at the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical of the University of Lisbon (Portugal).

Miguel Monteiro,Michael Stuart Lyne Mills,Pedro Beja,Martim Melo,Manuela Ramos,Cristiane Bastos-Silveira,Susana Consciência,Isabel Queirós Neves,Diana Rodrigues,Rui Figueira,Luís Reino

doi:10.3897/zookeys.708.13351

Miguel Monteiro, Michael Stuart Lyne Mills + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.708.13351

Copy DOI

Abstract

The Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical of the University of Lisbon, which resulted from the recent merger (in 2015) of the former state laboratory Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical in the University of Lisbon, holds an important collection of bird skins from the Portuguese-speaking African Countries (Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde), gathered as a result of several scientific expeditions made during the colonial period. In this paper, the subset from Mozambique is described, which was taxonomically revised and georeferenced. It contains 1585 specimens belonging to 412 taxa, collected between 1932 and 1971, but mainly in 1948 (43% of specimens) and 1955 (30% of specimens). The collection covers all eleven provinces of the country, although areas south of the Zambezi River are better represented than those north of the river. The provinces with the highest number of specimens were Maputo, Sofala, and Gaza. Although it is a relatively small collection with a patchy coverage, it adds significantly to Global Biodiversity Information Facility, with 15% of all records available before and during the collecting period (1830–1971) being the second largest dataset for that period for Mozambique.

Highlights

Mozambique, located along the southeast coast of Africa, has a total land area of 801,590 km2 encompassing three major biomes: the Afrotropical Highlands biome in the montane areas, the East African Coast biome in the lowlands, and the Zambezian biome represented by Brachystegia woodlands at mid elevations (Fishpool and Evans 2001)
Despite the fairly high number of bird species recorded, the avifauna of Mozambique is still one of the least studied on the African continent (Borghesio et al 2009), with several parts of the territory poorly explored, especially north of the Zambezi River (Dowsett-Lemaire 2008; Ryan and Spottiswoode 2003)
A substantial part of current knowledge is still based on studies conducted prior to the war (Clancey 1996), represented mostly by bird skin collections kept at scientific institutions and natural history museums around the world (Frade 1950; Pinto 1953a, 1953b; Frade and Pinto 1954)

Summary

Introduction

Mozambique, located along the southeast coast of Africa, has a total land area of 801,590 km encompassing three major biomes: the Afrotropical Highlands biome in the montane areas, the East African Coast biome in the lowlands, and the Zambezian biome represented by Brachystegia woodlands (miombo) at mid elevations (Fishpool and Evans 2001) This diversity of habitats supports a rich avifauna (Parker 1999; Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Affairs 2009), with 671 species recorded, more than 530 of which are breeding residents (BirdLife International 2015). In terms of the relevance of the IICT-ULisboa’s bird collection, albeit limited, this is a relevant contribution to Mozambiques ornithology, a poorly studied territory mainly due to the detrimental effects of both the Mozambican war of independence (1964– 1974) and its civil war (1977–1992) This collection, though relatively small, represents the second largest set of bird records for the country available through GBIF before and during the collecting period (1830–1971) which represents 15% of all the data for that same time. The Cisticolidae, Ploceidae and Nectariniidae are the families with most records (110, 99 and 92 specimens, respectively)

Near threatened

Findings

Methods