The Bale Mountains (also known as the Urgoma Mountains) are

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

s in the

Oromia Region Oromia (, ) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. Under Article 49 of 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Constitution, the capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa, also called Finfinne. The ...

of southeast

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, south of the

Awash River } The Awash River (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo language, Oromo: ''Awaash OR Hawaas'', Amharic: ዐዋሽ, Afar language, Afar: ''Hawaash We'ayot'', Somali language, Somali: ''Webiga Dir'', Italian language, Italian: ''Auasc'') is a major river ...

, part of the

Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands (also called the Abyssinian Highlands) is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , whil ...

. They include Tullu Demtu, the fourth-highest mountain in Ethiopia (4377 meters), and Mount Batu (4307 meters). The Weyib River, a tributary of the

Jubba River The Jubba River or Juba River (, ) is a river in southern Somalia which flows through the region of Jubaland. It begins at the border with Ethiopia, where the Dawa and Ganale Dorya rivers meet, and flows directly south to the Somali Sea, where ...

, rises in these mountains east of

Goba Goba ( Oromo: ', Amharic: ጎባ) is a town and separate woreda located in the Bale Zone of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia approximately 446 km southeast of Addis Ababa, this city has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2,743 ...

. The Bale Mountains National Park covers 2,200 square kilometers of these mountains. The park's main attractions are the wild alpine scenery and the relative ease with which visitors can see unique birds and mammals.

Fauna

The Bale Mountains are home to many of Ethiopia's

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

animals, notably the Ethiopian wolf (''Canis simensis''), found on the Sanetti Plateau. The park also contains the Harenna Forest, situated to the south of the mountains, which is a largely unexplored area thought to contain many undiscovered species of reptile as well as

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

hyena Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the sma ...

s and various types of

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

. Besides wildlife, the National Park offers trekking opportunities from the park headquarters at Dinsho. (

Dodola Dodola (also spelled ''Dodole'', ''Dodoli'', ''Dudola'', ''Dudula'' etc.) and Perperuna (also spelled ''Peperuda'', ''Preperuda'', ''Preperuša'', ''Prporuša'', ''Papaluga'' etc.) are rainmaking pagan customs widespread among different peoples ...

is also a useful base for exploring these mountains.) The largest group of Ethiopian wolves is found here. Other characteristic large mammals are

mountain nyala The mountain nyala (Amharic: የተራራ ኒዮላ) (''Tragelaphus buxtoni'') or balbok, is a large antelope found in high altitude woodlands in a small part of central Ethiopia. It is a monotypic species (without any identified subspecies) fi ...

s, Menelik's bushbucks,

warthog ''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly cons ...

s, and bohor reedbucks.

Flora

The

Juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

Hagenia ''Hagenia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plant with the sole species ''Hagenia abyssinica'', native to the high-elevation Afromontane regions of central and eastern Africa. It also has a disjunct distribution in the high mountains of East ...

forests lie between 2,500 and 3,300 m and are mostly found on the northern slopes. An unusual plant of the Dinsho area is the white-flowered Abyssinian rose. The alpine moorland of the Sanetti Plateau is covered in heath-like vegetation broken by heather plants and stands of giant lobelia which grow up to 6 meters high. One of the most common and distinctive plants throughout the Bale region is the red-hot poker, an

aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering plant, flowering succulent plant, succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Acc ...

which can be identified by its orange spear-shaped flowers.

Archaeological findings

Archaeologists have discovered a 30,000-year-old Middle-Stone Age rock shelter at the Fincha Habera site in Bale Mountains of Ethiopia over 11,000 feet above sea level in 2019. According to the study published in the journal Science, this dwelling was the earliest proof of the highest-altitude of human occupation. Thousands of animal bones, hundreds of stone tools, and ancient fireplaces were revealed on the ground.

References

Mountain ranges of Ethiopia Ethiopian Highlands Geography of Oromia World Heritage Sites in Ethiopia {{Oromia-geo-stub

Fauna

Flora

Archaeological findings

See also

References