The Kouga River originates near Uniondale,

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and flows eastward, where it joins the Groot River to form the Gamtoos just past the Kouga Dam. Its main tributary is the Baviaanskloof River, which joins its left bank before the dam. The Kouga is part of the Gamtoos river system which is formed by the Groot and the Baviaanskloof River. The Kouga Mountains to the north the river, Kouga Municipality and Kou-Kamma Municipality are named after this waterbody.

Ecology

In 1995 specimens of the

Cape galaxias The Cape galaxias (''Galaxias zebratus'') is a species of freshwater fish of the family Galaxiidae. It is a small fish, rarely larger than 6 cm, that inhabits clear streams, rivers and ponds of South Africa. It shares the same habitat as im ...

(''Galaxias zebratus''), a South African fish species

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 ...

to the

Cape Floristic Region The Cape Floral Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province. The Cap ...

, were found in the Kouga and in the

Krom River Krom River or Kromme River () is a river in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The river flows into the Indian Ocean through an estuary on the north side of Kouga Local Municipality, St Francis Bay, west of Port Elizabeth. The Krom river ...

. Until then it had been thought that its distribution was restricted to the area between the Keurbooms and the Olifants River. Although in South Africa this relatively delicate fish is only classified as

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

, in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

species of the same genus were driven to

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

by competing

salmonid Salmonidae (, ) is a family of ray-finned fish, the only extant member of the suborder Salmonoidei, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmon (both Atlantic a ...

s and other

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

of fish."Biodiversity, Alien trout, and the So what attitude"

References

External links

Hydrology

{dead link, date=December 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Rivers of the Eastern Cape

Ecology

See also

References

External links