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

By

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

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

708

Pages

139-152

Subjects

Animalia , Aves , Biodiversity databases , Chordata , Museum , Southern Africa , species occurrence data , specimen

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

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

 

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.