Ilhéu Raso

Ilhéu Raso is an uninhabited 5.76 square kilometres (2.22 square miles)[1] volcanic island in the Barlavento archipelago of Cape Verde. It is flanked by the smaller Branco islet to the west and by São Nicolau island on its eastern side, distance is 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) from the island of São Nicolau. Together with Santa Luzia and Ilhéu Branco, Ilhéu Raso is on the tentative list of UNESCO's World Heritage sites.[2] Since 1990, the islet is part of the protected area Reserva Natural Integral de Santa Luzia.[3]

Ilhéu Raso
Raso landscape
Ilhéu Raso
Ilhéu Raso
Geography
LocationAtlantic Ocean
Coordinates16°37′0″N 24°35′57″W
ArchipelagoCape Verde
Area5.76 km2 (2.22 sq mi)
Length3.6 km (2.24 mi)
Width2.8 km (1.74 mi)
Highest elevation164 m (538 ft)
Administration
Raso Lark
Northern part of Raso

The island is 3.6 kilometres (2.2 miles) long by 2.8 kilometres (1.7 miles) wide,[4] Its highest point is Monte da Ribeira Ladrão, elevation 164 metres (538 feet) above sea level.[5][6] The south-western part is a dry, boulder-strewn plain. There is little vegetation apart from an area of grassland in the south-west. The entire coastline consists of rocky cliffs.[7]

Fauna

Raso is now the only home of the critically endangered Raso lark (about 45 pairs). The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because, as well as the larks, it supports populations of Cape Verde shearwaters (with an estimated 2500–3750 breeding pairs), red-billed tropicbirds (25–40 pairs), Cape Verde owl and Iago sparrows, others include Oceanodroma castro.[7] It is one of only two islands where the extinct Cape Verde giant skink has been recorded. The giant wall gecko (Tarentola gigas) and a skink (Mabuya stangeri) still occur.[7]

gollark: I'm not sure which one #667 was?
gollark: Actually, via direct injection of correct function into hyperideatic metaspace we were able to patch quantum locks to work right.
gollark: Why would we have finite materials?
gollark: It was actually a minor concurrency error, yes.
gollark: And nobody likes those.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.