The Desert Islands of Mexico's Sea of Cortez by Stewart Aitchison

Author:Stewart Aitchison [Aitchison, Stewart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780816546824
Publisher: University of Arizona Press

FIGURE 27 This species of spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura conspicuosa) is known only from Isla San Esteban and nearby Isla Cholludo. Adults are often seen perched on the top of cardóns (Pachycereus pringlei), munching on the cactus flowers.

FIGURE 28 Scientists believe that fish-eating bats (Myotis vivesi) can detect slight ripples on the ocean’s surface made by fish, swooping down and snagging a fish using their long, sharp claws. Fishing-eating bats occur only in the Sea of Cortez area and a small area along the west coast of Baja.

Between Ángel and Tiburón are about a half-dozen small islands, each one biologically fascinating. Isla Partida Norte is composed of columnar basalt cliffs and slopes of volcanic boulders. The island harbors fish-eating bats (Myotis vivesi) and least and black storm-petrels. Both the bats and birds roost under rocks in tiny burrows. Fish-eating bats range throughout the gulf, but seem to be restricted to certain rockslide habitats for breeding. They have long legs and toes tipped with lethal claws for picking small fish off the ocean surface. If a bat is late in returning from its nighttime foray, gulls and peregrine falcons are known to attack them.

This island is also home to the endemic night snake (Hypsiglena gularis). Most people don’t realize that night snakes are poisonous, probably because unlike rattlesnakes, these snakes do not possess anterior fangs. Night snakes must clamp down on their prey and chew with their grooved hind teeth to allow the mildly toxic venom to be ground into the hapless creature. Humans generally don’t put up with this behavior.

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