Mkhambathi Nature Reserve (or Mkambati Nature Reserve) is a
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...
at
Lusikisiki
Lusikisiki is a town in the Ingquza Hill Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The name is onomatopoeic, derived from the rustling sound of reeds in the wind, named by the local Xhosa people. Lusikisiki is inland from a ...
in the
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 ...
Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism The Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism is situated in the coastal region overlapping the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape in South Africa. It is named after Pondoland and falls within the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot. The regio ...
and the greater Maputaland–Pondoland–Albany Hotspot, and is covered in open grassland, dotted with patches of indigenous forest, swamp forests and flanked by the forested ravines of the Msikaba and Mtentu rivers. The Reserve was listed as a protected
Ramsar site
A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O)
*** Permanent 8 ha (P)
*** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts)
**
Biodiversity
Amphibians
Amphibians occur in the coastal region of the reserve.
*
Bush squeaker
The bush squeaker (''Arthroleptis wahlbergii'') is a species of frog in the family Arthroleptidae. It is found along the coastal areas of eastern South Africa and possibly Mozambique.
Habitat
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry ...
The reserve has a large colony (400–800 individuals) of
Cape vulture
The Cape vulture (''Gyps coprotheres''), also known as Cape griffon and Kolbe's vulture, is an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae. It is endemic to southern Africa, and lives mainly in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, and in some parts ...
(a threatened species).
*
African finfoot
The African finfoot or Peter’s finfoot (''Podica senegalensis'') is an aquatic bird from the family Heliornithidae (the finfoots and sungrebe). The species lives in the rivers and lakes of western, central, and southern Africa.
Description
T ...
*
African grass owl
The African grass owl or simply grass owl (''Tyto capensis'') is a species of owl in the barn owl family, Tytonidae.
Description
The African grass owl resembles the Western barn owl, barn owl and has a heart shaped whitish-cream facial disc, w ...
*
Black-bellied bustard
The black-bellied bustard (''Lissotis melanogaster''), also known as the black-bellied korhaan, is an African ground-dwelling bird in the bustard family.
Description
The black-bellied bustard is long. The bill and legs are dull yellow. The mal ...
Brown scrub robin
The brown scrub robin (''Tychaedon signata'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Eswatini, Mozambique and, South Africa. Its natural habitat is subtropical dry or moist forest
A forest is an ecosystem charact ...
*
Buff-streaked chat
The buff-streaked chat or buff-streaked bushchat (''Campicoloides bifasciatus'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Lesotho, South Africa, and Eswatini.
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry lowland grass ...
*
Cape cormorant
The Cape cormorant or Cape shag (''Phalacrocorax capensis'') is a bird endemic to the southwestern coasts of Africa.
It breeds from the coastal area of Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast o ...
*
Cape vulture
The Cape vulture (''Gyps coprotheres''), also known as Cape griffon and Kolbe's vulture, is an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae. It is endemic to southern Africa, and lives mainly in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, and in some parts ...
*
Chorister robin-chat
The chorister robin-chat (''Cossypha dichroa'') (previously known as the chorister robin) is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found in South Africa and Eswatini. Its distribution stretches from the southern ...
*
Corn crake
The corn crake, corncrake or landrail (''Crex crex'') is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the Northern Hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff ...
*
Crowned eagle
The crowned eagle, also known as the African crowned eagle or the crowned hawk-eagle (''Stephanoaetus coronatus''), is a large bird of prey found in sub-Saharan Africa; in Southern Africa, it is restricted to more easterly areas.Sinclair & Ryan ...
*
Denham's bustard
Denham's bustard, Stanley bustard or Stanley's bustard (''Neotis denhami'') is a large bird in the bustard family. It breeds in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a species of open ground, including agricultural land, grassland, flood-plains and ...
*
Grey crowned crane
The grey crowned crane or gray crowned crane (''Balearica regulorum''), also known as the African crowned crane, golden crested crane, golden crowned crane, East African crane, East African crowned crane, African crane, Eastern crowned crane, ...
Gurney's sugarbird
Gurney's sugarbird (''Promerops gurneyi'') is a medium-sized passerine Endemism, endemic to the mid- and high-altitude grassland Veld, velds in southern Africa. It belongs to the family Sugarbird, Promeropidae, which contains one genus, ''Promero ...
*
Half-collared kingfisher
The half-collared kingfisher (''Alcedo semitorquata'') is a kingfisher in the subfamily Alcedininae that is found in southern and eastern Africa. It feeds almost exclusively on fish and frequents streams, rivers and larger bodies of water with de ...
*
Knysna woodpecker
The Knysna woodpecker (''Campethera notata'') is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is endemic to South Africa, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, moist savanna, and subtropical or tropical mois ...
Southern ground hornbill
The southern ground hornbill (''Bucorvus leadbeateri''; formerly known as ''Bucorvus cafer'') is one of two species of ground hornbill, both of which are found solely within Africa, and is the largest species in the hornbill order worldwide. It ...
*
Spotted ground thrush
The spotted ground thrush (''Geokichla guttata'') is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. It is found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and possibly Mozambique.
Description
These birds ar ...
*
Striped flufftail
The striped flufftail (''Sarothrura affinis'') is a species of bird in the flufftail family Sarothruridae. It is also known as the red-tailed flufftail. The species is closely related to the Madagascar flufftail.
The species has a disjunct dist ...
*
Swamp nightjar
The swamp nightjar or Natal nightjar (''Caprimulgus natalensis'') is a crepuscular and nocturnal bird in the nightjar family found in Africa.
Distribution and habitat
It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Cong ...
*
White-backed night heron
The white-backed night heron (''Calherodius leuconotus'') is a species of medium-sized heron in the family Ardeidae, found in sub-Saharan Africa.
Taxonomy
The white-backed night heron was formally described in 1827 by the German naturalist Joh ...
Mammals
Source:
*
Chacma baboon
The chacma baboon (''Papio ursinus''), also known as the Cape baboon, is, like all other baboons, from the Old World monkey family. It is one of the largest of all monkeys. Located primarily in southern Africa, the chacma baboon has a wide vari ...
*
Black-backed jackal
The black-backed jackal (''Lupulella mesomelas'') is a medium-sized Caninae, canine native to East Africa, eastern and southern Africa. These regions are separated by roughly .
One region includes the southernmost tip of the continent, includin ...
*
Bushbuck Bushbuck is a common name that may refer to one of the following African antelopes:
*Cape bushbuck
The Cape bushbuck (''Tragelaphus sylvaticus''), also known as imbabala is a common, medium-sized bushland-dwelling, and a widespread species of ant ...
Southern reedbuck
The southern reedbuck, rietbok or common reedbuck (''Redunca arundinum'') is a diurnal antelope typically found in southern Africa. It was first described by Pieter Boddaert, a Dutch physician and naturalist, in 1785. It is placed in the genu ...
*
Common duiker
The common duiker (''Sylvicapra grimmia''), also known as the gray duiker or bush duiker, is a small antelope and the only member of the genus ''Sylvicapra''. This species is found everywhere in Africa south of the Sahara, excluding the Horn of ...
Least dwarf shrew
The least dwarf shrew (''Suncus infinitesimus'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, and Uganda. I ...
There is an abundance of endemic plants found in the
Pondoland
Pondoland or Mpondoland (Mpondo: ''EmaMpondweni''), is a natural region on the South African shores of the Indian Ocean. It is located in the coastal belt of the Eastern Cape province. Its territory is the former Mpondo Kingdom of the Mpondo peopl ...
landscape of the reserve, including the endemic false water-berry, '' Rhynchocalyx lawsonioides''. The Pondo palm is only found in this region, growing along the banks of the Msikaba and Mtentu rivers. Gurney's sugarbird can be found in
protea
''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family.
About 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mo ...
bushes. Broad-tailed warblers can be found in
marshland
In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in general ...
.
Threats
The endemic plants in the reserve face threats from fire as a consequence of poaching game, and of pervading invasive alien plants like:
*
Black wattle
Black wattle is the common name for a number of species of trees that are native to Australia, as listed below:
*''Acacia aulacocarpa''
*''Acacia auriculiformis'', also known as Darwin Black Wattle or northern black wattle;
*''Acacia concurrens ...
*
Guava
Guava ( ), also known as the 'guava-pear', is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava '' Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), nativ ...
Protea afra
''Protea afra'' (sometimes called the common protea), native to Africa, inhabiting from South Africa to Kenya, is a small tree or shrub which occurs in subtropical open or wooded grassland, usually on rocky ridges. Its leaves are leathery and ha ...
''
File:Brunia trigyna S-2970.jpg, '' Brunia trygyna''. A species on the brink of extinction. The only remaining plant in the Mkhambathi Nature Reserve.