South Africa Fauna and Flora : Wildlife Guide

South Africa has seven major terrestrial biomes,

or habitat types - broad ecological life zones

with distinct environmental conditions and

related sets of plant and animal life.

South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its

long coastline stretching more than 2 500km from the

desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast southwards

around the tip of Africa and then north to the border with

subtropical Mozambique on the Indian Ocean.

The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that

distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment

that separates it from the high inland plateau. In some

places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the

east, a greater distance separates the coast from the

escarpment.

Although the country is classified as semi-arid,

it has considerable variation in climate as well

as topography.

The great inland Karoo plateau, where

rocky hills and mountains rise from sparsely

populated scrubland, is very dry, and gets more

so as it shades in the north-west towards the

Kalahari desert. Extremely hot in summer,

it can be icy in winter.

In contrast, the eastern coastline

is lush and well watered, a stranger to frost. The southern

coast, part of which is known as the Garden Route, is rather

less tropical but also green, as is the Cape of Good Hope - the

latter especially in winter. This south-western corner of the

country has a Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and

hot, dry summers. Its most famous climatic characteristic

is its wind, which blows intermittently virtually all year

round, either from the south-east or the north-west.

The eastern section of the Karoo does not extend as far

north as the western part, giving way to the flat landscape

of the Free State, which though still semi-arid receives

somewhat more rain. North of the Vaal River the Highveld

is better watered and saved by its altitude (Johannesburg

lies at 1 740m; its annual rainfall is 760mm) from subtropical

extremes of heat. Winters are cold, though snow is rare.

Further north and to the east, especially where a drop in

altitude beyond the escarpment gives the Lowveld its name,

temperatures rise: the Tropic of Capricorn slices through

the extreme north. This is also where one finds the typical

South African Bushveld of wildlife fame.

By far South Africa's biggest neighbour is the ocean - or

two oceans, which meet at the southwestern corner. Its

territory includes Marion and Prince Edward Islands,

nearly 2 000km from Cape Town in the Atlantic Ocean.

The cold Benguela current sweeps up from the Antarctic

along the Atlantic coast, laden with plankton and providing

rich fishing grounds. The east coast has the north-to-south

Mozambique/Agulhas current to thank for its warm waters.

These two currents have a major effect on the country's

climate, the ready evaporation of the eastern seas providing

generous rainfall while the Benguela current retains its

moisture to cause desert conditions in the west.

Several small rivers run into the sea along the coastline,

but none are navigable and none provide useful natural

harbours. The coastline itself, being fairly smooth,

provides only one good natural harbour, at Saldanha

Bay north of Cape Town. A lack of fresh water prevented

major development here. Nevertheless, busy harbours

now exist at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London,

Durban and Richard's Bay.

On dry land, going from west to east, the country

shares long borders with Namibia and Botswana,

touches Zimbabwe, has a longitudinal strip of border

with Mozambique to the east, and lastly curves in around

Swaziland before rejoining Mozambique's southern border.

In the interior, nestled in the curve of the bean-shaped Free

State, is the small mountainous country of Lesotho,

completely surrounded by South African territory.

There are only two major rivers: the Limpopo, a stretch

of which is shared with Zimbabwe, and the Orange

(with its tributary, the Vaal) which runs with a

variable flow across the central landscape from east

to west, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at the Namibian

border. In so dry a country, dams and irrigation are extremely

important: the largest dam is the Gariep on the Orange River.

South Africa is home to:

• the largest land-mammal - the African elephant
• the smallest mammal - the shrew, which is the size of a finger tip
• the tallest mammal - the giraffe
• the fastest land-mammal on earth - the cheetah
• the largest reptile - the leatherback turtle
• the largest African antelope - the eland
• the largest bird in the world - the ostrich
• the heaviest flying bird in the world - the kori bustard
• the largest rodent in Africa - the porcupine
• the largest rhino population in Africa