Cape Verde Red Kite (1 Viewer)

Does anyone have any up to date information about the current status of the Red Kite population on the Cape Verdes? The latest news I can find is that it was down to four birds in 2000. The red kite died out on the Canary Islands in the 1970s after a long decline and a heavy blow after a locust invasion in the 1950s was heavily treated with pesticides and poisoned many kites.

Alex
Important Bird Areas in Africa & Associated Islands - suggests that Sao Nicolau probably holds the best chances for any surviving birds but this seems to be wishful thinking really, perhaps based on sightings from the 1960s.

One of the references stated in this IBA is from year 2000 - Hille, S. & Thiollay, J.-M. "The imminent extinction of the kites M m fasciicauda and M m migrans on the Cape Verde Islands" - Bird Conservation International 10: 361 - 369.

There are many other references.

Raptors of the World (Ferguson-Lees & Christie) M. (m). fasciicauda is probably the world's rarest raptor, it cites numerous references, but nothing newer than 2000 (Sangster). It states that a survey of San Antao in 1997 found only 2 birds, 1 in the north & 1 in the south. Sadly it predicts extinction is inevitable. There is the added complication of hybridisation with Black Kites M migrans and the lack of effort by the Cape Verdian government and international conservation bodies due to the questioning of whether or not it was a full species or a race of the Red Kite which had the effect of making this exinction seeming to be unimportant.

Check out this link it refers to a couple of references but they seem to be Birdlogs rather than real scientific journals.
http://www.birdtours.co.uk/tripreports/cape-verde/cv3/cv-oct-03.htm


Hope that helps a bit.

Below is the relevant part of http://www.birdtours.co.uk/tripreports/cape-verde/cv3/cv-oct-03.htm

[Cape Verde Red Kite (Milvus fasciicauda) This endemic breeding bird of the Cape Verde Islands was not encountered on our trip. It is now probably globally extinct, and in that case the first Cape Verde speciality to become so. Its last stronghold was Santo Antão, where only two widely separated individuals were seen in 1999. Two birds were reported from neighbouring São Vicente in 2000. In 2001 both islands were surveyed for Red Kites by a team for more than a month. They sadly concluded, that the Cape Verde Red Kite is extinct. However, shortly after, 4 kites were discovered in Boavista and 2 in Maio in June 2001. 5 of these were captured in June 2002, and brought to London for a captivity breeding programme. These captured birds are now being examined by DNA-analysis, to reveal whether they are actually true Cape Verde Red Kites or Black Kites (or hybrids). One or a few individuals are supposedly still left in the wild in Maio (telecom with Rick Watson, October 2003). However, before our trip, we did not know whether the last, uncaptured bird was found in Maio or Boavista, since this is not stated in the article in Peregrine Fund Newsletter. Unfortunately, we picked Boavista instead of Maio.]

...... and from the Peregrine Fund https://www.peregrinefund.org/conserve_category.asp?category=Pan Africa Conservation Program

[Cape Verde Kite Project—The Cape Verde Kite is unique to the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa where it is critically endangered and possibly extinct. In 2001 and 2002 The Peregrine Fund located and captured five kites and translocated them to the National Birds of Prey Centre in the United Kingdom. Upon molecular genetic analyses, however, we determined that these kites may not be the target species, the “Cape Verde Kite.” This analysis, conducted by our associate Jeff Johnson of the University of Michigan, measured the genetic relationships between the five captured kites and Black Kites, Red Kites, and Yellow-billed Kites. The five samples presumed to be Cape Verde Kite were identical to two Black Kite samples collected from mainland Africa that were sequenced (mtDNA ND2 sequence, 1041 basepairs). Two specimens from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology that were labeled as Cape Verde Kite and collected in the 1920s were also sequenced. One, labeled as a potential hybrid, was also identical to the five presumed Cape Verde Kite samples and the two Black Kite samples. The other museum specimen was different at seven nucleotide positions and was genetically closer to Red Kites. The information available so far is not conclusive, but it looks like the five captured kites are either Black Kites or maternal hybrids (given that ND2 is mitochondrial in origin). More samples are needed to verify the unique Cape Verde Kite sequence we obtained from the 1920 specimen in the collection at the university. We are in the process of obtaining additional museum samples from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), including the original type specimen used to describe the species, which should help confirm the taxonomy of the captured kites.]

Cheers,

Andy.