1.5 km from the mouth of the Amanzimtoti River, just south of Durban, South Africa Photograph by Wes Schoch   Southern Africa: Eastern shore of South Africa Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   6,900 square miles (17,800 square kilometers) -- about the size of Connecticut and Delaware combined Critical/Endangered

· A Natural Montage
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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A Natural Montage

Hiking through the Kwazulu Cape Coastal Forest Mosaic, you might feel as though you were visiting several different worlds. This ecoregion is bordered on the inland side by the Drakensberg Mountains, which rise rapidly from the coastal plain. Near the coast, the steady effects of salt spray and strong winds have created stunted forests and thickets, while farther inland, larger coastal forests of trees such as the coast red milkwood, the natal guarri, and the cape plane, a hearty boxwood tree, harbor wintering birds like the Chorister robin and the spotted ground thrush. Massive dunes stretch for miles on the southeast coast, but farther north, on the Transkei Coast, sheer cliffs plunging into the ocean mark the shore. Marshes, swamps, and beaches also dot this ecoregion, providing prime habitat for numerous water birds, including the long-toed lesser jacana, the pink-backed pelican, and the Caspian tern.

Special Features

Despite its narrow size, this ecoregion has an amazing variety of vegetation. Here, you can see a progressive series of plant life, from small pioneer communities to thick coastal forests. Coming in from the water, the first plant you’re likely to see is the dune string. This tall, gangly, bright green shrub forms communities with tough steekgras, a species of grass. Moving inland, you’ll find a diverse mix of grasslands, swamps, and thickets, followed by coastal and dune forests.

	The black mamba is a large, aggressive snake that actively pursues its prey and then bites it repeatedly until its poison takes effect. The mamba is so poisonous that it takes only two drops of its deadly venom to kill a person!

Wild Side

As you might expect, a wide variety of animals lives in this diverse ecoregion. Shy blue and red duiker antelopes hide in the thick brush, while reedbucks bound through tall grasses and reeds. Herds of impalas graze in grasslands mixed with forests (a mosaic). Social vervet monkeys call out noisily to one another while feeding on a varied diet of fruit, leaves, bird eggs, and insects. The Kwazulu Cape is home to many bird species. In the marshes, the vulnerable southern bald ibis wades, recognizable by its featherless red head and glossy, blue-black plumage. The Chorister robin, with its bright orange underbelly, flits among evergreen trees in the coastal forests, and the endangered spotted ground thrush hops about the forest floor. Forest cobras live in coastal thickets near the water in the northern part of this ecoregion. The largest of the African cobras, this slender snake can grow up to six feet (2 m) or more in length. And if you’re not careful while hiking through the coastal bush, you might come across a fierce black mamba snake.

Cause for Concern

Humans heavily populate this ecoregion, and development has destroyed much of its natural habitat. Holiday resorts have taken over many of the beaches, and in the north much of the area has been reforested with eucalyptus and other non-native trees for paper pulp production. The mining of dunes for titanium ore is a particular threat to the ecoregion’s natural health. An extremely destructive process, the mining involves removing all the natural vegetation, excavating the sand, and extracting the ore. After the sand is returned, non-native plant species are usually planted in place of the original dune plant life.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.