Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

An annotated list of mammals collected in the vicinity of La Guaira, Venezuela

1901; Smithsonian Institution; Volume: 24; Issue: 1246 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5479/si.00963801.1246.135

2377-6560

Wirt Robinson, Marcus Ward Lyon,

Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

During the summer of 1900 the authors spent six weeks collecting in the vicinity of La Guaira, Venezuela.The present paper embodies the results of the trip so far as mammals are concerned; the birds, reptiles, and batrachians are treated in the two succeeding articles in this volume.La Guaira, the seaport town of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, lies along the foot of a range of lofty mountains.This range breaks away from the eastern chain of the Andes in Colombia, bears northeast until it reaches the coast of the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Cabello, thence hugs the shore in an almost due east direction, and finally ends opposite the island of Trinidad.For the greater part of this latter course the slopes fall precipitately into the sea, the waves of the Caribbean breaking against the foot of the mountains themselves, but in places there is a littoral strip or terrace of no great width.The mountains immediately behind La Guaira reach a height of 8,000 feet, buf from this point fall away gradually as one proceeds to the eastward.There are in the vicinity of La Guaira few or no passes through these mountains.Seven miles to the west there is a rugged gap, high up on the side of which winds the English railroad to Caracas.To the eastward there are no near-by breaks in the chain.Upon these peaks there is constant precipitation, and frequent streams of fine water furrow ravines in their course to the sea.The channels of these streams are well wooded, and would afford good ground for the collector were they not rendered so difficult by their cramped canyonlike character, their precipitous descent, and their bowlder-strewn beds.The few trails that exist avoid these streams and zigzag up the crests of the more practicable slopes.