Morro de Areia Nature Reserve ( pt, Reserva Natural do Morro de Areia) is a nature reserve covering the southwestern coast of the island of Boa Vista in

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

.Protected areas in the island of Boa Vista
- Municipality of Boa Vista, March 2013 It takes its name from the hill ''Morro de Areia'', elevation. The natural reserve covers 21.31 km² of land area,Resolução nº 36/2016
Estratégia e Plano Nacional de Negócios das Áreas ProtegidasNature reserves in Cape Verde
/ref> and stretches along the coast from the

Praia de Chaves Praia de Chaves (also: ''Praia da Chave'') is a beach in the western part of the island of Boa Vista in Cape Verde, close to the town Rabil. It is about 5 km long. At the northern part of the beach, close to Rabil, tourist resorts have been dev ...

in the north to the Praia de Santa Monica in the south. The reserve includes a 300 m wide marine protection zone, an additional 4.36 km². A coastal cave at Praia da Varandinha, 2010 12

A coastal cave at Praia da Varandinha, 2010 12

Fauna

The nature reserve was established in order to protect the sand dynamics of the dunes, and endemic wildlife species including

red-billed tropicbird The red-billed tropicbird (''Phaethon aethereus'') is a tropicbird, one of three closely related species of seabird of tropical oceans. Superficially resembling a tern in appearance, it has mostly white plumage with some black markings on the wi ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

turtles Turtles are an order (biology), order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) an ...

nurse shark The nurse shark (''Ginglymostoma cirratum'') is an elasmobranch fish in the family Ginglymostomatidae. The conservation status of the nurse shark is globally assessed as Vulnerable in the IUCN List of Threatened Species. They are considered t ...

, and numerous

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morro Areia Areia Geography of Boa Vista, Cape Verde Protected areas of Cape Verde

Fauna

See also

References