Page 11 - 5(1)_39-54

Vascular flora of four satellite islets of the Egadi Archipelago (W Sicily), with some notes on their vegetation and fauna 49

Notes on the vertebrate fauna Some vertebrae (8) and a lower jaw bone of Mustela
nivalis (Linnaeus, 1766) were collected from site
As concerns reptiles, Tarentola mauritanica but no living individuals were encountered. Among
(Linnaeus, 1758) was observed close to the aban- the observed bird species (data not shown), only the
doned building. Interestingly, Podarcis siculus permanent presence of Larus michahellis (Nau-
(Rafinesque, 1810) was the only lizard found at mann, 1840) is very much evident.
PRE (Fig. 8), while at Favignana it co-occurs with
Podarcis waglerianus (Gistel, 1868) (Corti et al., No terrestrial fauna was encountered on GAL.
1998, 2006). It was also observed on ROT (Fig. 9). Several Larus michahellis were observed on ROT
On both islets it performs very high densities like and GAL. Due to the total lack of traces of nesting
elsewhere in Mediterranean microinsular biota (Lo material, both islets probably are only perching/
Cascio & Pasta, 2006, 2008a; Sciberras, 2007; resting sites. As concerns FLE, it represents the nest-
Sciberras & Sciberras, 2014). ing site of few pairs of yellow-legged seagulls and
hosts a population of Podarcis siculus. The pres-
Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus, 1758) and ence of numerous mounds of olive seeds suggests
Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) were col- the occasional visit of Turdidae; most of these
lected at PRE and both were observed on the islet. seeds are bitten by a rodent, probably Rattus rattus
Local rabbit population appears to be very massive. (Linnaeus, 1758).

Figure 6. The flat top of Prèveto (photo A. Sciberras). Figure 7. The natural landscape of Cala Rotonda islet (photo A.
Sciberras). Figure 8. Podarcis siculus at Prèveto islet (photo A. Sciberras). Figure 9. Podarcis siculus at Cala Rotonda islet
(photo A. Sciberras).