Angolan mopane woodlands are situated in southwestern
Angola
, national_anthem = "Angola Avante"()
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, capital = Luanda
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, extending into northern
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ...
. This ecosystem surrounds
Etosha Pan, which is considered a separate ecoregion. The
mopane
''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern A ...
trees are the main type of vegetation.
Location and description
In Angola the region mostly comprises the southern
Cunene Province and in Namibia in the regions of
Omusati,
Oshana and the eastern inland arm of
Kunene and areas of
Oshikoto surrounding the Etosha Pan. The ecoregion includes the
Cunene River
The Cunene (Portuguese spelling) or Kunene (common Namibian spelling) is a river in Southern Africa. It flows from the Angola highlands south to the border with Namibia. It then flows west along the border until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean ...
which divides the two countries, and is one of the main sources of water in this dry region. The landscape is mainly flat. The rainy season is late summer.
The mopane woodlands are bounded on the west by the drier
Namibian savanna woodlands
The Namibian savanna woodlands, also known as the Namib escarpment woodlands, are deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Namibia and Angola.
Geography
They extend north and south from southwestern Angola to central Namibia, east of the coastal ...
. The
Angolan miombo woodlands lie to the north, the
Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands to the northeast, and the
Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...
to the east. The drier
Kalahari xeric savanna lies to the south.
[Burgess, Neil, Jennifer D'Amico Hales, Emma Underwood, et al. (2004). ''Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar: A Conservation Assessment''. World Wildlife Fund. Island Press, 2004.]
The Angolan mopane woodlands surround the
halophytic grasslands of
Etosha pan.
Flora
Mopane is the distinctive feature, a single-stemmed tree in some places up to 10 m high and in some places not much more than a shrub. It has butterfly-shaped leaves and grows in dense thickets. In
Etosha National Park
Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist. ...
in Namibia it is by the far the most common species.
Fauna
Fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Z ...
include large mammals, many of which can be seen in Etosha National Park. The ecoregion contains
elephants
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...
, who crash through the mopane trees and feed on their bark and leaves,
black rhino,
zebra
Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. z ...
,
cheetahs
The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specializ ...
,
leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus ''Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...
s,
lions, and many
antelope
The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia.
Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mamm ...
s. There are four mammals which are almost endemic to the ecoregion:
Thomas's rock rat (''Aethomys thomasi''), heather shrew (''
Crocidura erica''), blackish white-toothed shrew (''
Crocidura nigricans''), and the black-faced
impala
The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'') is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The only extant member of the genus ''Aepyceros'' and tribe Aepycerotini, it was first described to European audiences by Germ ...
. The mopane trees are the habitat of the
mopane emperor moth (gonimbrasia belina), whose caterpillars feed on the leaves and are collected for food by people in the area. The area is rich in bird life, insects (particularly spiders) and reptiles including four endemic reptiles: ''
Afrogecko ansorgii'', ''
Coluber zebrinus'',
Ruben's sand lizard (''Pedioplanis rubens''), and the
skaapsteker snake (''
Psammophylax rhombeatus ocellatus'').
Threats and preservation
The woodlands are vulnerable to clearance for agriculture, firewood and timber while the grassland between the trees is being overgrazed.
On the Angolan side there are two national parks,
Bicauri National Park and
Mupa National Park but wildlife in these parks and Cunene Province as a whole has been severely damaged by the
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war wa ...
.
Meanwhile in Namibia a huge game reserve contained a large proportion of this ecoregion until the park was broken up to create land for settlements in the 1960s. Part of the reserve remains protected as
Etosha National Park
Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist. ...
and this includes a large area of mopane woodland but the widespread poaching and uncontrolled hunting which began with the dismantling of the reserve and the
Namibian War of Independence
The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...
still continues in Etosha and other private reserves in Namibia. There have also been outbreaks of
anthrax
Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The s ...
in Etosha National Park. On the positive side firefighting efforts have allowed the park to become more wooded and thus support a larger elephant population.
Visiting the region
The closest town to Etosha National Park is
Tsumeb
, nickname =
, settlement_type = City
, motto = ''Glück Auf'' ( German for ''Good luck'')
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, image_flag ...
.
References
External links
PlantZAfrica.comGoogle books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angolan Mopane woodlands
Afrotropical ecoregions
Ecoregions of Angola
Ecoregions of Namibia
Geography of Angola
Geography of Namibia
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Zambezian region