The wildlife of 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...

is composed of its flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

 and fauna

Fauna

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"...

.

In the Quitçama National Park in the Kwanza River Valley, Angola's top military brass are battling to reintroduce elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

s, 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...

 and other species that once roamed the country's 10 national parks before the civil war. Quiçama spans nearly 10,000 km² about 75 kilometres south of Luanda

Luanda

Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...

, the country's capital. Backed by a privately funded, $10 million (U.S.) project, the generals are working with South African wildlife experts to revive Angola's wildlife, beginning with the Quiçama Park.

Angola's protracted war has had a catastrophic effect on the country's wildlife. Forty years ago, thousands of animals roamed the fertile bushland of Quiçama. But over the years, the animals fell prey to landmines, ivory-stalking poachers and hungry locals. Many animals were slaughtered by the country's military, which used low-flying helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

s to take pot shots at big game.

The civil war between the army and UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

 rebels began after a 14-year struggle for independence from Portugal, which was granted in 1975. Still raging, the war has cost the lives of more than a million people and driven more than 2.5 million civilians from their homes. UNITA is a Portuguese language

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

Mammals

• Aardwolf
  Aardwolf
  The aardwolf is a small, insectivorous mammal, native to Eastern and Southern Africa. The name means "earth wolf" in Afrikaans/Dutch. It is also called "maanhaar jackal". It is related to hyenas, but unlike its relatives, it does not hunt large prey. This unusual animal preys on insects...
  
  
• African Buffalo
  African Buffalo
  The African buffalo, affalo, nyati, Mbogo or Cape buffalo is a large African bovine. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild Asian water buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear...
  
  
• African Bush Elephant
  African Bush Elephant
  The African Bush Elephant or African Savanna Elephant is the larger of the two species of African elephant. Both it and the African Forest Elephant have usually been classified as a single species, known simply as the African Elephant...
  
  
• African Civet
  African Civet
  The African Civet is the largest representative of the African Viverridae. It is the sole member of its genus. African Civets can be found from coast to coast across sub-Saharan Africa. They are primarily nocturnal and spend the day sleeping in dense vegetation...
  
  
• African Golden Cat
  African Golden Cat
  The African Golden Cat is a medium-sized wild cat distributed over the rainforests of West and Central Africa. It is about long, and has a tail of about in length...
  
  
• African Manatee
  African Manatee
  The African manatee , also known as the West African manatee or seacow, is a species of manatee and is the most endangered of the four species of sirenians. Scientists think they are most similar to West Indian manatees...
  
  
• African Striped Weasel
  African striped weasel
  The African striped weasel , the lone member of genus Poecilogale, is a small black and white weasel native to sub-Saharan Africa. It looks very much like a striped polecat, but it is much thinner and has shorter hair. It is a sleek, black color with a white tail and four white stripes running...
  
  
• Banded Mongoose
  Banded Mongoose
  The Banded Mongoose is a mongoose commonly found in the central and eastern parts of Africa. It lives in savannas, open forests and grasslands and feeds primarily on beetles and millipedes. Mongooses use various types of dens for shelter including termite mounds...
  
  
• Bat-eared Fox
  Bat-eared Fox
  The bat-eared fox is a canid of the African savanna, named for its large ears. Fossil records show this canid to first appear during the middle Pleistocene, about 800,000 years ago....
  
  
• Black Rhinoceros
  Black Rhinoceros
  The Black Rhinoceros or Hook-lipped Rhinoceros , is a species of rhinoceros, native to the eastern and central areas of Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Angola...
  
  
• Black-footed Cat
  Black-footed Cat
  The black-footed cat is the smallest African cat, and is endemic in the south west arid zone of the southern African subregion. It is one of the lesser studied African carnivores, and has been listed as Vulnerable by IUCN since 2002....
  
  
• Blue Duiker
  Blue Duiker
  Blue Duiker is a small forest dwelling duiker found in the Central Africa and southern South Africa.Blue Duikers stand around 35 centimetres tall at the shoulder and weigh 4 kilograms.They are the smallest of the antelope family. Blue Duikers have a brown coat with a slight blue tinge – hence...
  
  
• Bongo (antelope)
  Bongo (antelope)
  The western or lowland bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus eurycerus, is a herbivorous, mostly nocturnal forest ungulate and among the largest of the African forest antelope species....
  
  
• Brown Hyena
  Brown Hyena
  The brown hyena is a species of hyena which occurs in Namibia, Botswana, western and southern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and South Africa. It is currently the rarest hyena.-Description:...
  
  
• Bushbuck
  Bushbuck
  The bushbuck is the most widespread antelope in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is found in rain forests, montane forests, forest-savanna mosaics and bush savannaforest and woodland. Recently, genetic studies have shown that the bushbuck, is in fact a complex of two geographically and phenotypically...
  
  
• Cape Fox
  Cape Fox
  The Cape fox , also called the cama fox or the silver-backed fox, is a small fox.It has black or silver gray fur with flanks and underside in light yellow. The tip of its tail is always black....
  
  
• Cape Fur Seal
  Cape Fur Seal
  The brown fur seal , also known as the Cape fur seal, South African fur seal and the Australian fur seal is a species of fur seal.-Description:...
  
  
• Cape Hyrax
  Cape Hyrax
  The Rock Hyrax , or Cape Hyrax, is one of the four living species of the order Hyracoidea, and the only living species in the genus Procavia. Like all hyraxes, it is a medium-sized terrestrial mammal, superficially resembling a guinea pig with short ears and tail...
  
  
• Caracal
  Caracal
  The caracal is a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat ranging over Western Asia, South Asia and Africa.The word caracal comes from the Turkish word "karakulak", meaning "black ear". In North India and Pakistan, the caracal is locally known as syahgosh or shyahgosh, which is a Persian term...
  
  
• Cheetah
  Cheetah
  The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
  
  
• Common Duiker
  Common Duiker
  The Common Duiker, Sylvicapra grimmia, also known as the Grey or Bush Duiker, is a small antelope with small horns found in west, central, east, and southern Africa- essentially everywhere in Africa south of the Sahara, excluding the horn of Africa and the rainforests of the central and western...
  
  
• Common Eland
  Common Eland
  The common eland , also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is the largest antelope in the African continent...
  
  
• Gemsbok
  Gemsbok
  The gemsbok or gemsbuck is a large antelope in the Oryx genus. It is native to the arid regions of southern Africa, but formerly some authorities included the East African Oryx as a subspecies...
  
  
• Giant Sable Antelope
  Giant Sable Antelope
  The Giant Sable Antelope, Hippotragus niger variani, also known in Portuguese as the Palanca Negra Gigante, is a large, rare subspecies of Sable Antelope native and endemic to the region between Cuango and Luando Rivers in Angola....
  
  
• Giraffe
  Giraffe
  The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
  
  
• Greater Kudu
  Greater Kudu
  The Greater Kudu is a woodland antelope found throughout eastern and southern Africa. Despite occupying such widespread territory, they are sparsely populated in most areas, due to a declining habitat, deforestation and hunting....
  
  
• Ground Pangolin
• Hartebeest
  Hartebeest
  The hartebeest is a grassland antelope found in West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. It is one of the three species classified in the genus Alcelaphus....
  
  
• Hippopotamus
  Hippopotamus
  The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
  
  
• Impala
  Impala
  An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language meaning "gazelle"...
  
  
• Kirk's Dik-dik
  Kirk's Dik-dik
  Kirk's Dik-dik is a small antelope found in eastern and southwestern Africa. It grows to in length and weighs up to when full grown. It has a reddish-brown head and a tail that is long....
  
  
• Klipspringer
  Klipspringer
  The Klipspringer, Oreotragus oreotragus, is a small species of African antelope.-Name:The word klipspringer literally means "rock jumper" in Afrikaans/Dutch...
  
  
• Lechwe
  Lechwe
  The Lechwe, or Southern Lechwe, is an antelope found in Botswana, Zambia, south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, north-eastern Namibia, and eastern Angola, especially in the Okavango Delta, Kafue Flats and Bangweulu Swamps....
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• Marsh Mongoose
  Marsh Mongoose
  The Marsh Mongoose, or Water Mongoose, is a medium-sized mammal but a large mongoose. Weight can range from , with an average range of . From the head to the base of the tail, these animals range from , with the tail adding . It is a member of the mongoose family and the only member of its genus...
  
  
• Meerkat
  Meerkat
  The meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan"...
  
  
• Mountain Zebra
  Mountain Zebra
  The Mountain Zebra, Equus zebra, is a threatened species of equid native to south-western Angola, Namibia and South Africa. It has two subspecies, the Cape Mountain Zebra and Hartmann's Mountain Zebra , though it has been suggested these should be considered separate species.-Taxonomy:In 2004,...
  
  
• Oribi
  Oribi
  Oribi are graceful slender-legged, long-necked small antelope found in grassland almost throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.-Description:...
  
  
• Plains Zebra
  Plains Zebra
  The plains zebra , also known as the common zebra or Burchell's zebra, is the most common and geographically widespread species of zebra. It ranges from the south of Ethiopia through East Africa to as far south as Angola and eastern South Africa...
  
  
• Roan Antelope
  Roan Antelope
  The Roan Antelope is a savanna antelope found in West, Central, East Africa and Southern Africa.Roan Antelope stand about a metre and half at the shoulder and weigh around 250 kilograms. Named for the "roan' colour , they have a lighter underbelly, white eyebrows and cheeks and a black face,...
  
  
• Sable Antelope
  Sable Antelope
  The Sable Antelope is an antelope which inhabits wooded savannah in East Africa south of Kenya, and in Southern Africa.-Subspecies:There are four subspecies:* H. n. niger which is considered low risk conservation dependent...
  
  
• Serval
  Serval
  The serval , Leptailurus serval or Caracal serval, known in Afrikaans as Tierboskat, "tiger-forest-cat", is a medium-sized African wild cat. DNA studies have shown that the serval is closely related to the African golden cat and the caracal...
  
  
• Sitatunga
  Sitatunga
  The situtunga or marshbuck is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout Central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and parts of Southern Sudan as well as in Ghana, Botswana, Zambia, Gabon, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.-Description:Situtunga stand about one and a...
  
  
• Southern Reedbuck
  Southern Reedbuck
  The Southern Reedbuck, Rietbok or Common Reedbuck is a diurnal antelope typically found in southern Africa.It was first described by Pieter Boddaert, a Dutch physician and naturalist, in 1785...
  
  
• Spotted Hyena
  Spotted Hyena
  The spotted hyena also known as laughing hyena, is a carnivorous mammal of the family Hyaenidae, of which it is the largest extant member. Though the species' prehistoric range included Eurasia extending from Atlantic Europe to China, it now only occurs in all of Africa south of the Sahara save...
  
  
• Springbok Antelope
  Springbok Antelope
  The springbok is a medium-sized brown and white gazelle that stands about high. Springbok males weigh between and the females between...
  
  
• Steenbok
  Steenbok
  The Steenbok, Raphicerus campestris, is a common small antelope of southern and eastern Africa. It is sometimes known as the Steinbuck or Steinbok.- Description :...
  
  
• Topi
  Topi
  The Tsessebe , is one of five subspecies in the binomial class D. lunatus. The other subspecies include Korrigum , Tiang , Coastal Topi , and Topi . Tesessebe are found primarily in Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa...
  
  
• Warthog
  Warthog
  The Warthog or Common Warthog is a wild member of the pig family that lives in grassland, savanna, and woodland in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the past it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P...
  
  
• Waterbuck
  Waterbuck
  The Waterbuck is a large antelope found widely in Sub-Saharan Africa.Waterbuck stand at the shoulder. Males weigh and females . Their coats are reddish brown in colour and become progressively darker with age; they have a white 'bib' under their throats and white on their rumps...
  
  
• Wildebeest
  Wildebeest
  The wildebeest , also called the gnu is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved mammal...
  
  
• Yellow Mongoose
  Yellow Mongoose
  The Yellow Mongoose , sometimes referred to as the Red Meerkat, is a small mammal averaging about 1 lb in weight and about 20 in in length...
  
  
• Yellow-backed Duiker
  Yellow-backed Duiker
  The Yellow-backed Duiker , is an antelope found in central and western Africa. They have the widest range of any duiker in the genus Cephalophus....
  
  

Birds

The avifauna of Angola includes a total of 983 species, of which 14 are endemic, 1 has been introduced by humans, and 4 are rare or accidental. 20 species are globally threatened.

The western Angola Endemic Bird Area has 14 range-restricted species. Little is known about the conservation status of the region's birds due to the civil war that has raged in Angola for the last 27 years. The greatest diversity of restricted-range species is found in Cuanza Sul province, and given the uncertainty about their current status, many of these species are listed as Threatened. Gabela Bush-shrike Laniarius amboimensis are common and Monteiro's Bush-shrike Malaconotus monteiri are fairly common in degraded secondary forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

, old coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 plantations and primary forest at Kumbira

Kumbira

Kumbira is a professional and student culinary show and live competition held in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao, Philippines. It is the largest culinary event in Mindanao, lasting for three days....

. Pulitzer's Longbill Macrosphenus pulitzeri is fairly common at higher elevations at Kumbira as well as in the dense understorey of secondary forest west of Seles. Angola Cave-chat Xenocopsychus ansorgei is found on the rocky slopes above the forest at Kumbira.

Flora

The southern and central coasts include the welwitschia

Welwitschia

Welwitschia is a monotypic genus of gymnosperm plant, composed solely of the very distinct Welwitschia mirabilis. The plant is commonly simply known as Welwitschia in English. It is known locally as !kharos or khurub , tweeblaarkanniedood , nyanka , or onyanga , among others...

, a primitive conifer. The grassy savanna around Lobito

Lobito

Lobito is a town and municipality in Benguela Province in Angola.It dates from 1905 and owes its existence to the bay of the same name having been chosen as the sea terminus of the Benguela railway to the far interior, passing through Luau to Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The...

 includes baobab

Baobab

Adansonia is a genus of eight species of tree, six native to Madagascar, one native to mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and one to Australia. The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island....

 and euphorbia trees.

The Huambo, Benguela and Huíla provinces are home to montane forest with rare flora.

The grassy savanna in the north includes miombo woodland and some evergreen forest