Fauna of South Africa - Habitats

Habitats

The topography and geology of South Africa is extremely varied, resulting in a wide variety of habitats. Due to this, South Africa is ranked sixth out of the world’s seventeen megadiverse countries. In the extreme northwest of the country is true desert, which is the southernmost end of the Namib desert, a desert that is at least 55 million years old, making it the oldest desert in the world. This arid corner intergrades into the extensive semi-arid Karoo found across much of South Africa, covering the Northern Cape and into parts of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and the Free State. This biome used to be extensive grassland in the past, but has become dominated by small shrubs and succulents due to centuries of overgrazing. To the north and east of these biomes is the Kalahari, which is mainly semi-arid woodland, dominated by thorn trees of the genus Acacia. The north-east and eastern parts of South Africa (Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Kwa-Zulu Natal)is covered with savanna and open woodlands known as bushveld. This area supports the widest variety of wildlife in the country. The most prevalent biome in South Africa is grassland, particularly on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses and low shrubs. In this biome trees are rare and occur only along watercourses where fires are uncommon. Towards the southern coast, the vegetation is again dominated by shrubs in ecological communities known as Thicket and noorsveld, where succulent species such as Euphorbia, Aloe, and Portulacaria afra are common, as well as Cape Honeysuckle Tecoma capensis and Cape Leadwort Plumbago auriculata. To the west, the vegetation intergrades into Mediterranean shrubland known locally as fynbos, dominated mainly by plant families rare in other habitats, such as Proteaceae, Ericaceae and Restionaceae. Here the vegetation is made up of sclerophyllous plants which do not support much mammal or bird life. Finally, the last biome found is forest, which only covers 1% of South Africa and is concentrated around the Knysna area and scattered along the escarpment of the Drakensberg mountains upwards along Kwa-Zulu Natal.

• An example of fynbos, seen at Cape Point.

• Highveld habitat with a Highveld Cabbage Tree Cussonia paniculata

• A typical bushveld ecological community

• Semi-desert vegetation in Karoo National Park in the Karoo

• The forest in the Knysna region, typified by Podocarpus species