Exploration into the hidden world of Mozambique’s sky island forests: new discoveries of reptiles and amphibians

Abstract

We carried out a survey of reptiles and amphibians within Afromontane forest and woodland slopes of three inselbergs in northern Mozambique (Mount Mabu, Mount Namuli, and Mount Ribáuè). A total of 56 species (22 amphibians and 34 reptiles) were recorded during the current survey. Our findings substantially increase the number of herpetofaunal species recorded from these mountains (Mount Ribáuè 59%, Mount Mabu 37%, and Mount Namuli 11% of the total species), including one new country record and several putative new species. An updated checklist of the herpetofauna of these mountains is presented.

Saving collections: taxonomic revision of the herpetological collection of the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisbon (Portugal) with a protocol to rescue abandoned collections

“…In the last decade Mozambique has been targeted by researchers and new fieldwork is being conducted. This has already resulted in important contributions and new species descriptions (e.g., Branch et al 2005aBranch et al , 2014Branch et al , 2017Branch and Bayliss 2009;Branch and Tolley 2010;Portik et al 2013a;Conradie et al 2016) and checklists (Broadley 1990b(Broadley , 1992Branch et al 2005b;Schneider et al 2005;Downs and Wirminghaus 2010;Jacobsen et al 2010;Pietersen et al 2013;Ohler and Frétey Xenopus muelleri (Peters, 1844) Porto Henrique -IICT/A 1-9/1948, 10-19/1948; Chizizira -IICT/A 1/1965; Gorongosa -IICT/A 44/1955, 49-54/1955, 69-76/1955, 85-90/1955Caniçado, B.T.L. vivarium -IICT/A 42-42/1963, 278-283/1955 , 21/1963, 35/1948, 38/1948, 59/1948, 61/1948, 67/1948, 69/1948Caniçado, watering channel -IICT/A 24-32/1963, 89/1963, 91/1963, 103/1963, 106/1963 -19/1955, 78/1955, 82-83/1955, 95-96/1955, 118-123/1955, 144-147/1955, 152-156/1955, 171-175/1955 Amietia angolensis (Bocage, 1866) Gorongosa -IICT/A 3-6/1955, 21-41/1955, 47/1955, 91-94/1955, 101-131/1955, 138-143/1955, 148-151/1955, 158-160/1955, 167-170/1955, 272-275/1955, 284- (Smith, 1849) Homoíne -IICT/R 111/1963…”

Ophiophagy and cannibalism in African vine snakes (Colubridae: Thelotornis)

“…The Museu de História Natural de Maputo (Mozambique) is in the process of having its collection upgraded and digitised. The herpetological collection includes mostly historical material (pre-1970), but also some recently collected material (Conradie et al, 2016;Jones et al, 2017;Portik, Mulungu, Sequeira, & Mcentee, 2013). In April 2019, W. Conradie was invited to identify specimens in the herpetological collection.…”

A New Species of Horseshoe Bat (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) from Mount Namuli, Mozambique

“…Between 2007 and 2009 several expeditions visited Mount Namuli (Timberlake et al, 2008) funded by the Darwin Initiative (UK) and organised through the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, in collaboration with the Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique, and the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (Malawi). In 2010, an expedition visited Mount Namuli funded by the African Butterfly Research Institute (ABRI), and since this time there have been several other expeditions to survey aspects of the ecology from Mount Namuli and in particular the herpetology (Portik et al, 2013a;Farooq and Conradie, 2015;Conradie et al, 2016). Most of these recent expeditions form part of an ongoing biological focus on the high-altitude mountains of northern Mozambique resulting in the discovery of the largest patch of contiguous rainforest in southern Africa at Mount Mabu (Bayliss et al, 2014).…”