The Njesi Highlands ( Portuguese: ''Serra Jeci'') are a range of mountains in northern

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Geography

The highlands rise east of

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is ...

in the western portion of Mozambique's

Niassa Province Niassa is a province of Mozambique with an area of 129,056 km2 and a population of 1,810,794 (2017). It is the most sparsely populated province in the country. Lichinga is the capital of the province. There are a minimum estimated 450,00 ...

. They are north of

Lichinga Lichinga is the capital city of Niassa Province of Mozambique. It lies on the Lichinga Plateau at an altitude of , east of Lake Niassa (Lake Malawi). The town was founded as Vila Cabral as a farming and military settlement. It is served by L ...

, the provincial capital. The highest peaks are three

inselberg An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...

s, the Njesi Plateau (1,843 m), Mount Chitagal (1,784 m), and Mount Sanga (1,782 m). The three peaks form part of a ridgeline that runs southwest to northeast. The Njesi Plateau is the southernmost peak, 30km from Mount Chitagal, and Mount Sanga is 25 km north of Mount Chitagal.Samuel EI Jones, Gabriel A Jamie, Emidio Sumbane & Merlijn Jocque (2020) The avifauna, conservation and biogeography of the Njesi Highlands in northern Mozambique, with a review of the country’s Afromontane birdlife, Ostrich, 91:1, 45-56, DOI: 10.2989/00306525.2019.1675795

known in Mozambique as Lake Niassa, lies in the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...

, and the ridge and the highlands form part of the rift valley's eastern wall. The western slope of the highlands is drained by the Messinge River, and the Luchulingo River drains the eastern slope. Both rivers are northward-flowing tributaries of the Rovuma River. The Messinge River valley separates the Njesi Plateau from Serra Macuta, a similar plateau lying to the west.

Flora

The highlands are mostly covered in

miombo woodland Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) charac ...

, and are in the

eastern Miombo woodlands The Eastern miombo woodlands (AT0706) are an ecoregion of grassland and woodland in northern Mozambique, southern Tanzania, and southeastern Malawi. Setting These species-rich savanna ecosystems cover wide areas of gentle hills and low valleys co ...

ecoregion. The three peaks include patches of

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions o ...

forest, higher-elevation evergreen forests which are home to species distinct from those of the surrounding lowlands. Other higher-elevation plant communities include Afromontane grassland and

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 ...

shrubland.

Fauna

In the 20th century the mountains had been little surveyed by biologists, due in part to the long

Mozambican Civil War The Mozambican Civil War () was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992 due to a combination of local strife and the polarizing effects of Cold War politics. The fighting was between Mozambique's ruling Marxist Front for the Liberat ...

from the mid-1970s to the 1990s.Jones S.E.I., Clause J.K., Geeraert L., Jamie G.A., Patel, H., Sumbane E., van Berkel, T. and Jocque M. (2017) The Njesi Plateau expedition: a biological assessment of Mt Chitagal, Mt Sanga and the Njesi Plateau in Niassa Province, Mozambique. BES Report 6.3 (25 October 2017). Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation. Glabbeek, Belgium, 80 pp. Large mammals include the

African buffalo The African buffalo (''Syncerus caffer)'' is a large sub-Saharan African bovine. The adult African buffalo's horns are its characteristic feature: they have fused bases, forming a continuous bone shield across the top of the head, referred to ...

(''Syncerus caffer''),

klipspringer The klipspringer (; ''Oreotragus oreotragus'') is a small antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of its genus and subfamily/tribe, the klipspringer was first described by German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zi ...

(''Oreotragus oreotragus''),

sable antelope The sable antelope (''Hippotragus niger'') is a large antelope which inhabits wooded savanna in East and Southern Africa, from the south of Kenya to South Africa, with a separated population in Angola. Taxonomy The sable antelope shares the genu ...

(''Hippotragus niger''),

bushpig :''"Bush pig" may also refer to the red river hog.'' The bushpig (''Potamochoerus larvatus'') is a member of the pig family that inhabits forests, woodland, riverine vegetation and cultivated areas in East and Southern Africa. Probably introd ...

(''Potamochoerus larvatus''),

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 ...

(''Panthera pardus''),

side-striped jackal The side-striped jackal (''Lupulella adusta'' or ''Schaeffia adusta'') is a canine native to Central and Southern Africa. Unlike the smaller and related black-backed jackal (''Lupulella mesomelas''), which dwells in open plains, the side-strip ...

(''Canis adustus''),

spotted hyena The spotted hyena (''Crocuta crocuta''), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus ''Crocuta'', native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUC ...

(''Crocuta crocuta''), and

yellow baboon The yellow baboon (''Papio cynocephalus'') is a baboon in the family of Old World monkeys. The species epithet means "dog-head" in Greek, due to the dog-like shape of the muzzle and head. Yellow baboons have slim bodies with long arms and legs al ...

(''Papio cynocephalus''). 21st-century biological surveys of the mountain have documented some limited-range and endangered animals living in the highlands. These include the Mozambique forest warbler (''Artisornis sousae'') which is endemic to the highlands and lives in the Afromontane and riparian forests. It was identified as a separate species in 2016, and had previously been classed as a subspecies of the long-billed tailorbird (''Artisornis moreaui''), which is found over 900 km north in the

Usambara Mountains The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges are approximately long and about half that wide, and they are situated in the Lushoto District ...

of Tanzania. Other bird species found in the highlands include the montane nightjar (''Caprimulgus poliocephalus''), eastern green tinkerbird (''Pogoniulus simplex''),

dark batis The dark batis (''Batis crypta'') is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus '' Batis'' in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae. It is found in highland forest in south-west Tanzania, northern Malawi, and northern Mozambique. These birds w ...

(''Batis crypta''),

yellow-streaked greenbul The yellow-streaked greenbul or yellow-streaked bulbul (''Phyllastrephus flavostriatus'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in eastern and south-eastern Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropic ...

(''Phyllastrephus flavostriatus''),

Eurasian blackcap The Eurasian blackcap (''Sylvia atricapilla'') is a bird usually known simply as the blackcap. It is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences across the five subspec ...

(''Sylvia atricapilla''),

dapple-throat The dapple-throat (''Arcanator orostruthus'') is a species of bird in the small African family Modulatricidae. Other common names include dappled mountain robin and dappled mountain greenbul. It is native to Mozambique and Tanzania. This is the o ...

(''Arcanator orostruthus''), green twinspot (''Mandingoa nitidula''), Southern citril (''Crithagra hyposticta''), and Vincent's bunting (''Emberiza vincenti'').

References

{{reflist Mountains of Mozambique Eastern miombo woodlands Important Bird Areas of Mozambique Geography of Niassa Province Inselbergs of Africa