Weenan Nature Reserve, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa Photograph by Steffen Beyer   Southern Africa: Eastern South Africa Montane Grasslands and Shrublands   7,500 square miles (19,500 square kilometers) -- about the size of New Jersey Critical/Endangered

· All Broken Up
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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All Broken Up

Because this region occupies the narrow river valleys and stretches up into the Drakensberg Mountain foothills, it is considered naturally fragmented. Its landscape has been shaped in large part by the cycles of uplift and erosion begun with the rifting and break-up of Gondwana--when all of the continents on Earth were joined. The northern and southern sections of this region are quite different in terms of their plant types. This region is also home to unique and endangered species, including the black rhino.

Special Features

The Maputaland-Pondoland Bushland Thicket, as its name suggests, is mainly thicket habitat, with some closed canopy forest and grassland. Although the same basic type of thicket habitat occurs in other areas, this ecoregion holds the best remaining example. It has a seasonally dry climate, with precipitation ranging from 16 to 32 inches (400 to 800 mm) and valley mists providing additional moisture for plants in the driest areas. Thicket vegetation in this region grows up to 20 feet (6 m) in height, with evergreen species such as kooboo-berry and thornfern dominating.

	The dusky-bellied water snake found in this ecoregion can swallow small frogs, fish, and tadpoles without surfacing--an unusual trait among snakes.

Wild Side

More than 6,000 different kinds of plants thrive in the Maputaland-Pondoland Bushland Thicket ecoregion. A dense thicket of evergreen species covers the landscape, providing both food and shelter for many insect- and seed-eating birds, including the endemic Chorister robin-chats and forest canaries. Living here also are tiny black-headed and Natal midlands dwarf chameleons, Natal hingeback tortoises, and giant golden moles. Areas that stay wet even during dry spells are good places to look for some of the endemic frog species of this ecoregion, including the Natal diving frog. In many areas, thicket vegetation is beginning to invade the surrounding grassland and savanna habitats. This is because hunting and poaching have reduced large browsers such as black rhinos and kudus.

Cause for Concern

Half of the habitat in this ecoregion has been altered and transformed for other uses. In many areas, erosion has led to stony, steep land covered with very shallow soils that cannot support vegetation, which has resulted in a loss of some mammal species. And because the ecoregion is neighbored by some of the most densely populated areas of Africa, habitat is continually being lost to crops such as tea, sugar cane, and maize. Furthermore, goats and other livestock are heavily overgrazing native vegetation near urban centers. Another major problem is the invasion of more than 130 species of alien plants.

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