The Ilhéus do Rombo, also known as the Ilhéus Secos (
Portuguese for "Dry Islets", because of their aridity and paucity of vegetation), are a group of small, uninhabited islands in the
Cape Verde
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
, lying off the coast of north-west Africa in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
. The islets form an integral nature reserve.
[Resolução nº 36/2016]
, Estratégia e Plano Nacional de Negócios das Áreas Protegidas They are sited on a
volcanic
A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...
seamount
A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly a ...
north of
Brava and west of
Fogo. The two major islets of the chain are
Ilhéu Grande
Ilhéu Grande is an uninhabited island of Cape Verde
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic isla ...
() and
Ilhéu de Cima (). Administratively they are part of the
municipality of Brava. They can be seen from Brava and, sometimes, from Fogo.
Description
The larger islets have some sparse
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...
. Ilhéu Grande is on the west side of the group. It has a length of about from south-west to north-east and a width of , with a small bay in the north-west. Ilhéu de Cima, on the east of the group, is about long and ; wide, with a small bay in its south-east. Some smaller unvegetated islets and rocks, including the Ilhéu do Rei, Ilhéu Sapado and Ilhéu Luiz Carneiro, lie between them.
Fauna
Ilhéu de Cima is famous for its
seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...
colonies
A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
. Ilhéu Grande, which has been used by
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
farmers and
whalers in the past, does not currently support breeding seabirds, though large colonies must have existed formerly as the island has thick layers of
guano
Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...
.
[ The island group has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by ]BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...
because it supports seabird colonies as well as peregrine falcon
The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known simply as the peregrine, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family (biology), family Falconidae renowned for its speed. A large, Corvus (genus), cro ...
s and Iago sparrows. Birds include the Frigate bird ('' Pelagodroma marina'') numbering around 1,000 in 1989, the Boyd's shearwater (''Puffinus boydi''), '' Oceanodroma castro'', Bulwer's petrel (''Bulweria bulwerii''), the brown booby (''Sula leucogaster'') (50 pairs between 1986 and 1990) and '' Phaethon aethereus'' (only 5-10 couples between 1986 and 1990). Also there is a subspecies of the Peregrine falcon
The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known simply as the peregrine, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family (biology), family Falconidae renowned for its speed. A large, Corvus (genus), cro ...
named ''madens'', discovered in the mid-1960s with only 15 to 20 pairs.[
]Sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...
s have been reported to nest occasionally on the small, sandy beaches of Ilhéu de Cima.
See also
* List of islands of Cape Verde
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilheus Secos
Brava Municipality
Secos Ilheu
Secos Ilheu