Upemba National Park is a large national park in Haut-Lomami,

Lualaba Province Lualaba is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Lualaba, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, and Tanganyika provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Katanga province. ...

Haut-Katanga Province Haut-Katanga (French for "Upper Katanga") is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba, and Tanganyika provinces are the result of the dismemberm ...

(formerly in

Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika Province, Tanganyika, Hau ...

) of the southeastern

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, formerly

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

Geography

At the time of the creation of Upemba National Park, on 15 May 1939, the park had a surface area of . It was the largest park in Africa. In July 1975, the limits were revised and today the integral park has an area of with an annex of a further . Its lower section is located in the

Upemba Depression The Upemba Depression (or Kamalondo Depression) is a large marshy bowl area ( depression) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo comprising some fifty lakes, including 22 of relatively large size including Lake Upemba (530 km) and Lake Kisale ...

, a lush area of lakes and

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

es including the eponymous

Lake Upemba Lake Upemba is a lake in Bukama, Haut-Lomami District, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It, and nearby Lake Kisale, is surrounded by the Upemba Depression in Upemba National Park. The nearest town is Nyonga, and the nearest hospital is locate ...

, and bordered by the

Lualaba River The Lualaba River flows entirely within the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides the greatest streamflow to the Congo River, while the source of the Congo is recognized as the Chambeshi. The Lualaba is long. Its headwaters are in ...

. Its higher section is in the dryer Kibara Plateau mountains.

History

Upemba National Park was first established in 1939. As with much of the wildlife of the region, in contemporary times the park continues to be threatened by the activities of poachers, pollution, and the activities of refugees and militia. There are also a handful of villages in the park. In recent years, the park has come under considerable attack from poachers and local militias. On 28 May 2004, for instance, the park headquarters in Lusinga came under attack by the

Mai Mai The term Mai-Mai or Mayi-Mayi refers to any kind of community-based militia group active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that is formed to defend local communities and territory against other armed groups. Most were formed to resis ...

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

. Several wardens and their families were killed, the headquarters were burned down, and the family of the chief warden was taken hostage. On 1 June 2005, the protectors of the park received the Abraham Conservation Award for their role in protecting the rich biodiversity of the

Congo River The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

basin.

Habitat

The habitat of the park varies from

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 ...

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

s and forests at higher altitudes in the

Kibara Mountains The Kibara Mountains (French: Monts Kibara) are a range in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are partly within the Upemba National Park. The Kibara mountains were once part of a continuous plateau in northern Kat ...

; through

Miombo woodlands The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...

and

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...

s; to

es,

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s, lakes, and streams with

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...

s at the lower altitudes. It is home to some 1,800 different species, some of them discovered as late as 2003.

has a maximum depth reported to be only and it is a site of intense algae growth. The watercourses of the region fluctuate according to the season and the water level in the lakes is high from March to June, and low from October to January. Many of the bodies of the water in the area are characterized by extensive swamps, with

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

, Nile lettuce and

water caltrop The water caltrop is any of three extant species of the genus ''Trapa'': ''Trapa natans'', ''Trapa bicornis'' and the endangered ''Trapa rossica''. It is also known as buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling gok (Chinese: 菱角), ling nut, lin kok ...

among other species.

Fauna

The system of lakes, rivers, swamps and wetlands supports a variety of fish fauna. This includes over 30 species of

Cyprinidae Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest verte ...

Mormyridae The Mormyridae, sometimes called "elephantfish" (more properly freshwater elephantfish), are a Mormyridae (superfamily) , family of Electric fish , weakly electric freshwater fish in the order Osteoglossiformes native to Africa. It is by far the ...

(also known as freshwater elephant fish), ''

Barbus ''Barbus'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. The type species of ''Barbus'' is the common barbel, first described as ''Cyprinus barbus'' and now named ''Barbus barbus''. ''Barbus'' is the namesake genus of the subfamily B ...

'',

Alestidae African tetras (family Alestidae, formerly spelled Alestiidae) are a group of characiform fish exclusively found in Africa. This family contains about 18 genera and 119 species. Among the best known members are the Congo tetra, and African tige ...

Mochokidae The Mochokidae are a family of catfishes (order Siluriformes) that are known as the squeakers and upside-down catfish (although not all species swim upside-down). There are nine genera and about 200 species of mochokids. All the mochokids are fre ...

and

Cichlidae Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted thi ...

. Bird species include several threatened or endangered species, such as the

shoebill The shoebill (''Balaeniceps rex'') also known as the whalebill, whale-headed stork or shoe-billed stork, is a very large long-legged wading bird. It derives its name from its enormous shoe-shaped bill. It has a somewhat stork-like overall form ...

wattled crane The wattled crane (''Grus carunculata'') is a large bird found in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. It is sometimes placed in the monotypic genus ''Bugeranus''. Taxonomy The first formal description of the wattled crane was by the German nat ...

and spotted ground-thrush. Schmidt's snouted frog is only known from the park.

References

{{Authority control Central Zambezian miombo woodlands Haut-Lomami Lualaba Province Haut-Katanga Province Miombo Protected areas established in 1939 1939 establishments in the Belgian Congo

Geography

History

Habitat

Fauna

See also

References