The wildlife of

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

is composed of its

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

and

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

. Namibia's endangered species include the wild dog,

black rhino The black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis''), also called the black rhino or the hooked-lip rhinoceros, is a species of rhinoceros native to East and Southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namib ...

, oribi and puku.

Endangered species

Namibia has many endangered species within its national parks and wildlife resorts. The puku antelope is limited to about 100 individuals along the Chobe River in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

and the Linyati marshes in Namibia. The black rhino and white rhino have suffered the most from

poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...

and are on the verge of extinction. If there had been no effort to save them in the last 20 years they most likely would have disappeared. While both species occur naturally in Namibia, in many of the reserves they have been reintroduced. The country also has the largest population in southern Africa of

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large Felidae, cat and the Fastest animals, fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, wit ...

s not contained within national parks. There are over twenty species of

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

ranging from the largest, the eland, to the smallest, the Damara dik-dik. The gemsbok, a striking antelope with long symmetrical horns and distinctive black and white markings, is featured on the Namibian coat of arms. Namibia also harbours a wealth of small mammals including

mongoose A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family has two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to southern Europe, A ...

jackal Jackals are Canidae, canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe Canina (subtribe), canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-b ...

as well as the less common antbear and

honey badger The honey badger (''Mellivora capensis''), also known as the ratel ( or ), is a mammal widely distributed across Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. It is the only living species in both the genus ''Mellivora'' and the subfami ...

, both solitary and nocturnal.

National parks and nature reserves

Namibia's parks and reserves range from the open bush of the centre and the north where wildlife is relatively plentiful, to the barren and inhospitable coastal strip with its huge sand dunes. The three main tourist attractions for wildlife in Namibia are

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. ...

Waterberg National Park Waterberg Plateau Park is a national park in central Namibia on the Waterberg Plateau, south-east of Otjiwarongo. The plateau and the national park are named after the prominent table mountain that rises from the plateau, the Waterberg (Afrika ...

and Cape Cross Seal Reserve.

National parks

* Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park (see also Fish River Canyon and Ai-Ais Hot Springs) * Bwabwata National Park *

* Khaudum National Park * Mudumu National Park *

Namib-Naukluft National Park The Namib-Naukluft National Park is a national park in western Namibia, situated between the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the edge of the Great Escarpment. It encompasses part of the Namib Desert (considered the world's oldest desert), the ...

* Nkasa Rupara National Park * Skeleton Coast National Park *

Nature reserves

* Kaokoland Nature Reserve * Khaudum Nature Reserve * Mamili Nature Reserve * Mudumu Nature Reserve

Fauna

Namibia has 115 species of fish (five endemic). There are about 50 species of

frogs A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough skin texture due to ...

(six endemic) but neither

caecilian Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians ...

s nor

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

s. Namibia is home to 250 species of

reptiles Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

with 59 endemic. There were 1331 recorded species of arachnids with 164 endemic but there are potentially 5650 species. Records show 6331 species of insects (1541 of them are endemic). but there are expected to be 35,000 species of insects.

Freshwater insects

* 19 species of Ephemeroptera * 2 species of

Plecoptera Plecoptera is an order (biology), order of insects commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to b ...

* 35 species of

Trichoptera The caddisflies (order Trichoptera) are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the basis ...

* 77 species of Odonata * 179 species of

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...

* 1 species of

Neuroptera The insect order (biology), order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order consists of some 6,000 species. Neuroptera is grouped together with the Megaloptera (alderflies, f ...

* 200 species of

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

* 45 species of

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...

* 7 species of

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – gras ...

Freshwater invertebrates

* 3 species of

Porifera Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a Basal (phylogenetics) , basal clade and a sister taxon of the Eumetazoa , diploblasts. They are sessility (motility) , sessile ...

* 2 species of

Cnidaria Cnidaria ( ) is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water, freshwater and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroid (zoology), hydroids, ...

* 9 species of Platyhelminthes * 5 species of Ectoprocta * 10 species of

Nematoda The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitism, parasitic. Parasitic ...

* 13 species of

Oligochaeta Oligochaeta () is a subclass of soft-bodied animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms. Specifically, oligochaetes comprise the terrestrial megadril ...

* 16 species of

Hirudinea Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bo ...

* 52 species of Ostracoda * 19 species of Copepoda *

Branchiopoda Branchiopoda, from Ancient Greek βράγχια (''bránkhia''), meaning "gill", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a class (biology), class of crustaceans. It comprises Anostraca, fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, Diplostraca (or Cladocera), ...

** 19 species of Anostraca ** 19 species of Cladocera ** 2 species of

Notostraca The order Notostraca, containing the single family Triopsidae, is a group of crustaceans known as tadpole shrimp or shield shrimp. The two genera, ''Triops'' and ''Lepidurus'', are considered living fossils, with similar forms having existed since ...

** 15 species of Conchostraca *

Malacostraca Malacostraca is the second largest of the six classes of pancrustaceans behind insects, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members, the malacostracans, display a great diversity of body forms and include crab ...

** 6 species of

Amphipoda Amphipoda () is an order (biology), order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 10,700 amphip ...

** 4 species of

Isopoda Isopoda is an order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both aquatic species and terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed l ...

** 6 species of

Decapoda The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, a ...

Terrestrial invertebrates

* 25 species of DiplopodaVohland, K. & Hamer, M. 2013. A review of the millipedes (Diplopoda) of Namibia, with identification keys and descriptions of two new genera and five new species. '' African Invertebrates'' 54 (1): 251–304.

Mammals

200 species of terrestrial mammals (14 of them are endemic) and 40 species of marine mammals are native to Namibia.

Birds

There are 645 species of birds (14 of them are endemic).

Mollusks

There were 26 species of

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks that live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs t ...

s recorded and 13 species of

freshwater bivalve Freshwater bivalves are molluscs of the order (biology), order Bivalvia that inhabit freshwater ecosystems. They are one of the two main groups of freshwater molluscs, along with freshwater snails. The majority of bivalve molluscs are saltwater ...

s.Curtis B., Roberts K. S., Griffin M., Bethune S., Hay C. J. & Kolberg H. 1998. "Species richness and conservation of Namibian freshwater macro-invertebrates, fish and amphibians". '' Biodiversity and Conservation'' 7(4): 447-466.
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A number of land gastropods are also found in Namibia.

Flora

There are 4334 species of plants recorded (683 of them are endemic).Simmons R. E., Griffin M., Griffin R. E., Marais E. & Kolberg H. 1998. "Endemism in Namibia: patterns, processes and predictions". '' Biodiversity and Conservation'' 7(4): 513-530. . *'' Senecio haworthii'' - woolly senecio *'' Aloidendron dichotomum'' - quiver tree *'' Welwitschia mirabilis''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildlife Of Namibia Biota of Namibia