Angolan Mopane woodlands
Encyclopedia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
and southwestern Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. This ecosystem surrounds Etosha Pan, which is considered a separate ecoregion. The slim, elegant mopane
Mopane
The mopane or mopani tree grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern Africa, into South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Angola and Malawi. The tree only occurs in Africa and is the only species in genus Colophospermum...
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 OmusatiOmusati
Omusati region is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia. Uutapi at Ombalantu forms a natural centre for this region. Mopani tree is the dominant species; the Makalani palms decrease rapidly westwards from the border with Oshana region...
, Oshana
Oshana
Oshana is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia. The name Oshana lends itself well to this region as it describes the most prominent landscape feature in the area, namely the shallow, seasonally inundated depressions which underpin the local agro ecological system...
and the eastern inland arm of Kunene
Kunene Region
Kunene is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia and home to the Himba ethnic group. Compared to the rest of Namibia, it is relatively underdeveloped...
and areas of Oshikoto
Oshikoto Region
Oshikoto is one of the thirteen regions of Namibia. The northern part of the region is agricultural, whereas the main economic activities in the southern part are cattle rearing and mining...
surrounding the Etosha Pan. The ecoregion includes the Cunene River
Cunene River
The Cunene River or Kunene River 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. It is one of the few perennial rivers in the region. It is about long, with a drainage...
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.
Flora
Mopane is the distinctive feature, a single-stemmed tree in some places up to 10m high and in some places not much more than a shrub. It has butterfly-shaped leaves and grows in dense thickets. In Etosha National ParkEtosha National Park
Etosha National Park is a national park in the Kunene Region of northwestern Namibia. The park shares boundaries with the regions of Oshana, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa....
in Namibia it is by the far the most common species.
Fauna
FaunaFauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
include large mammals, many of which can be seen in Etosha National Park. The ecoregion contains elephants, who crash through the mopane trees and feed on their bark and leaves, black rhino, zebra
Zebra
Zebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds...
, cheetahs, leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
s, lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s, and many antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
s. There are four mammals which are almost endemic to the ecoregion: Thomas's Rock Rat
Thomas's Rock Rat
Thomas's Rock Rat is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.It is found only in Angola.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland....
(Aethomys thomasi), Heather Shrew (Crocidura erica) and Blackish White-toothed Shrew (Crocidura nigricans), and the black-faced impala
Impala
An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language meaning "gazelle"...
. 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
Psammophylax rhombeatus
Psammophylax rhombeatus or Rhombic Skaapsteker, is a small, attractively patterned, Southern African snake usually measuring between 45 and 85 centimetres in length, though occasionally reaching 140 cm....
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
Bicauri National Park
Bicauri National Park is a national park in Angola....
and Mupa National Park
Mupa National Park
Mupa National Park is a National Park in Angola's Cunene province. It was proclaimed a National Park on 26 December 1964 while Angola was a Portuguese territory....
but wildlife in these parks and Cunene Province as a whole has been severely damaged by the Angolan Civil War
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War was a major civil conflict in the Southern African state of Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with some interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. Prior to this, a decolonisation conflict had taken...
.
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
Etosha National Park is a national park in the Kunene Region of northwestern Namibia. The park shares boundaries with the regions of Oshana, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa....
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
Namibian War of Independence
See also South African Border War.The Namibian War of Independence, also known as the South African Border War, which lasted from 1966 to 1988, was a guerrilla war, which the nationalist South-West Africa People's Organization and others, fought against the apartheid government in South...
still continues in Etosha and other private reserves in Namibia. There have also been outbreaks of anthrax
Anthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...
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.