Angolan mopane woodlands are situated in southwestern

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

, extending into northern

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. This ecosystem surrounds

Etosha Pan The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 120-kil ...

, which is considered a separate ecoregion. The

mopane ''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern A ...

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

Omusati Omusati ( ng, Mopane, after the dominant tree in the area) is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Outapi. The towns of Okahao, Oshikuku and Ruacana as well as the self-governed village Tsandi are situated in this region. , O ...

Oshana Oshana is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Oshakati. The towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva and Ondangwa, all situated with this region, form an urban cluster with the second largest population concentration in Namibia after the c ...

and the eastern inland arm of Kunene and areas of

Oshikoto Oshikoto is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, named after Lake Otjikoto. Its capital is Omuthiya. The city of Tsumeb, Otjikoto's capital until 2008, and the towns of Omuthiya and Oniipa are also situated in this region. , Oshikoto had 112,1 ...

surrounding the Etosha Pan. The ecoregion includes the Cunene River 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. The mopane woodlands are bounded on the west by the drier Namibian savanna woodlands. The Angolan miombo woodlands lie to the north, the

Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands The Zambezian '' Baikiaea'' woodlands is an ecoregion in Africa. It includes dry deciduous forest and woodland, thicket, and grassland, dominated by the tree ''Baikiaea plurijuga''. The ecoregion has a semi-arid climate, and is a transition betwee ...

to the northeast, and the

Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal ...

to the east. The drier Kalahari xeric savanna lies to the south.Burgess, Neil, Jennifer D'Amico Hales, Emma Underwood, et al. (2004). ''Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar: A Conservation Assessment''. World Wildlife Fund. Island Press, 2004. The Angolan mopane woodlands surround the halophytic grasslands of

Etosha pan The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 120-kil ...

Flora

Mopane is the distinctive feature, a single-stemmed tree in some places up to 10 m high and in some places not much more than a shrub. It has butterfly-shaped leaves and grows in dense thickets. In

Etosha National Park Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist ...

in Namibia it is by the far the most common species.

Fauna

Fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is '' flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. ...

include large mammals, many of which can be seen in Etosha National Park. The ecoregion contains

elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

, who crash through the mopane trees and feed on their bark and leaves,

black rhino The black rhinoceros, black rhino or hook-lipped rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis'') is a species of rhinoceros, native to eastern and southern Africa including Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania ...

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zebr ...

, cheetahs,

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, ...

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adu ...

s, and many

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mamm ...

s. There are four mammals which are almost endemic to the ecoregion:

Thomas's rock rat Thomas's rock rat (''Aethomys thomasi'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae found only in Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital ...

(''Aethomys thomasi''), heather shrew (''

Crocidura erica The heather shrew (''Crocidura erica'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital ...

''), blackish white-toothed shrew ('' Crocidura nigricans''), and the black-faced

impala The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'') is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The only extant member of the genus ''Aepyceros'' and tribe Aepycerotini, it was first described to European audiences by Ger ...

. 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 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 Bicuari National Park (Portuguese: Parque Nacional do Bicuar; also called Bicuar National Park or Bikuar/Huila National Park) is a national park in Angola. It is located in the south-west region of the country on the Huila Plateau, about 120&nbs ...

and Mupa National Park but wildlife in these parks and Cunene Province as a whole has been severely damaged by the

Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...

. 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

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 The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and An ...

still continues in Etosha and other private reserves in Namibia. There have also been outbreaks of

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The s ...

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.

Visiting the region

The closest town to Etosha National Park is

Tsumeb , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = ''Glück Auf'' (German for ''Good luck'') , image_skyline = Welcome to tsumeb.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag ...

References

External links

PlantZAfrica.comGoogle books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angolan Mopane woodlands Afrotropical ecoregions Ecoregions of Angola Ecoregions of Namibia Geography of Angola Geography of Namibia Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Zambezian region