Termit Massif Reserve - Geography

Geography

The reserve is a Total Faunal Reserve IUCN type IV, established 1 January 1962, covering over 700,000 hectares of the Termit Massif, which includes the Termit Massif Faunal Reserve Buffer Zone, forming a half ring around the southern border of the larger Termit Massif Reserve. The rocky Sahel highlands on the southern edge of the Sahara desert are known for their endangered antelope populations. Termit has both desert and mountain terrain.

WWF has classified this reserve as part of the larger ecoregion of the South Saharan Steppe and Woodlands ecoregion that includes a strip of desert land which extends from central Mauritania, Mali, southwestern Algeria, Niger, Chad, and across Sudan to the Red Sea, and borders southern fringes of the Sahara Desert. In the highly arid climatic conditions, precipitation is very scanty varying in the range of 100-200 mm, (highly temporal with spatial variation) which is generally during July and August. The ecoregion has two seasons - the dry season from November to May and the rainy season lasting from June to September. The highest temperature reported is 38 °C in May, whereas the lowest recorded is 23 ° C in June at Gouré. People's sustenance in the region is largely dependent on pastoralism, rainfed agriculture, irrigation near oases and cattle grazing.

Termit Massif is the central core of the reserve. The topography of the massif's southern part includes long eroded slopes of black sandstone formations which have valley formations, gullies and hillocks of conical shape. The northern part, called the Gossololom region, has rock outcrops rising out of the sand. The masiff is surrounded by a landscape of black rocks and ochre coloured sand. The peak elevation of the massif is 710m. The massif is home for human settlements of tribes of Toubou people whose basic vocation is farming (livestock and agriculture) with rearing of camels, goats and a limited number of sheep. The Gossololom region has notable archaeological finds from the Paleolithic and post-Neolithic periods. The tools found are Acheulean stone tools: microliths, bifaced tools, chopping tools, axe heads, and remnants of pots. Many carvings on stones of giraffes and cattle have also been found.

The soil formations recorded in the reserve in the sequence of from south to north are; the ancient dunes of the Quaternary age consisting of soil and clay; sand dunes running longitudinally; the newly deposited layers of sand dunes; a mixture of old and new dunes in the north; formations of clayey sandstone as bedrock; and the sandy alluvium of the Quaternary age in the dry valley of Dillia.

In the dry valley of Dillia, and in basins and valleys cutting the massif, there are only eight temporal ponds which are filled for 3 months of the year. In the foothills of the massif, deep wells of 16 to 40 m depth are the only other source of water.