The Kaokoveld Desert is a coastal desert of 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 ...

and southern

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

Setting

The Kaokoveld Desert occupies a coastal strip covering , from 13° to 21°S and is bounded by the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

to the west, the

Namibian savanna woodlands The Namibian savanna woodlands, also known as the Namib escarpment woodlands, are deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of Namibia and Angola. Geography They extend north and south from southwestern Angola to central Namibia, east of the coastal ...

to the east, and the

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namib ...

to the south. It includes the Moçâmedes Desert of southern Angola. The Kaokoveld is a harsh desert of drifting sandunes and rocky mountains. It receives most of its rainfall during the summer, which distinguishes it from the adjacent Namib Desert to the south, which receives most of its rain during the winter. The Kunene River is the only permanent watercourse but many dry riverbeds (including the

Hoanib The Hoanib is one of the 12 ephemeral seasonal rivers in the west of Namibia, where it was the border between northern Damaraland and Kaokoland. Its length is 270 km. With the low population density, the oasis character of the river valle ...

, Hoarusib and

Khumib River The river Khumib is an ephemeral river crossing the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia. It occasionally carries surface water during the rainy seasons in November and February/March. Its catchment area is estimated between 2200 and . The Khum ...

s) carry moisture through the desert and are home to animals including elephants, black rhinos, and giraffe. Other than those the area is ancient desert sand, moistened by occasional coastal fog.

Flora

The Kaokoveld is home to ''

Welwitschia mirabilis ''Welwitschia'' is a monotypic gymnosperm genus, comprising solely the distinctive ''Welwitschia mirabilis'', endemic to the Namib desert within Namibia and Angola. ''Welwitschia'' is the only living genus of the family Welwitschiaceae and ord ...

'', a plant that has no close living relatives.

Fauna

The Kaokoveld is home to a number of endemic reptiles while large mammals including desert elephants (''Loxodonta africana''), black rhinos (''

Diceros bicornis 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 ...

'') and giraffes (''

Giraffa camelopardalis The northern giraffe (''Giraffa camelopardalis''), also known as three-horned giraffe,Linnaeus, C. (1758)The Nubian or Three-horned giraffe (''Giraffa camelopardalis'').Existing Forms of Giraffe (February 16, 1897): 14. is the type species of gi ...

'') visit the riverbeds. There is a great deal of birdlife including the endemic Cinderella waxbill ('' Glaucestrilda thomensis'') on the Kunene River.

Threats and preservation

Skeleton Coast National Park Skeleton Coast National Park is a national park located in northwest Namibia, and has the most inaccessible shores, dotted with shipwrecks. The park was established in 1971 and has a size of .Shollenbarger, MariaMars on Earth: Traveling Namibia's ...

runs for 500 km along the coast of Namibia and is the main protected area in the region, along with other smaller conservancies inland. Much of the area was formerly protected under Game Reserve 2, which was reduced in size to become

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 1967, with a subsequent increase in poaching and more recently uncontrolled off-road driving. There is an area of sand dunes in

Iona National Park Iona National Park (Portuguese: ) is the largest national park in Angola. It is situated in the Southwestern corner of the country, in Namibe Province. It is roughly bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the West, an escarpment to the East that mark ...

in Angola.

References

External links

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Kaokoveld Minerals (Erongominerals.com)
{{Coord, 17.5, S, 12, E, source:wikidata, display=title Afrotropical ecoregions Deserts and xeric shrublands Ecoregions of Angola Ecoregions of Namibia