Habitats Threats and Conservation Africa has some of the biggest wilderness areas on Earth It has the largest desert the Sahara the second-biggest tropical rain forest in the Congo Basin vast areas of savanna grassland and the unique fynbos habitat of South Africa Bigger than the state of Alaska the lush Congo Basin rain forest spreads across parts of six countries It is home to more than 400 species of mammals over 1,000 different kinds of birds 700 fish species and many thousands of invertebrates Many of these animals are endangered including bonobos chimpanzees lowland and mountain gorillas and forest elephants The basin is rich in wood oil and minerals such as diamonds gold and coltan used in cell phones and global demand for all these resources is growing Concessions have been granted for more and more of the forest to be opened up for mining and logging Each time a mining or logging operation starts up roads have to be driven into the forest and homes have to be built for the workers Often the demand for locally killed bushmeat grows In fact about 1 million tons 0 9 million tonnes of bushmeat are eaten every year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo especially monkeys and antelope These pressures have reduced the populations of many animal species even where they are supposed to be protected A good example is Virunga which was the first national park when it was established in 1925 to protect a vast tract of forest stretching between the Virunga Mountains and the Rwenzori Mountains in eastern D R Congo The forest suffered greatly during a civil war in the early 21st century and poaching has been a major problem Since 1994 140 park rangers have been killed trying to prevent poaching Despite this Virunga probably still has more bird mammal and reptile species than any other protected area on the African continent Mountain gorillas though rare are still present in the forest as are lowland gorillas okapis and several hundred species of birds Agencies such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature WWF have worked with communities to encourage 4 the sustainable use of resources For example more than 10 million trees have been planted around Virunga to help provide local people with fuel and therefore take the pressure off older forest where much sensitive wildlife including mountain gorillas lives Desert and semidesert The Sahara Desert which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east could not provide a greater contrast with the luxuriant vegetation of the Congo Basin Whereas the latter has many thousands of plant species the Sahara has only 500 mainly xerophytes and ephemeral plants that are able to survive in the very arid conditions Considering the hyper-arid conditions the fauna of the central most arid part of the Sahara is richer than is generally believed There are about 70 species of mammals 20 of which are large mammals These include very small numbers of the Critically Endangered addax the dama gazelle Endangered and the red-fronted gazelle Vulnerable The populations of all three of these antelope and others whose numbers are not so threatened at present have been greatly reduced by hunting for food and also through hunting for sport and recreation Another antelope bubal hartebeest has been extinct since the early 20th century the last
HABITATS THREATS AND CONSERVATION herd of 15 animals was seen by a hunter in Morocco in 1917 he shot 12 of them There are also 90 different kinds of resident birds including the hooded wheatear which is endemic to the region At least 100 species of reptiles live in the desert Invertebrates are numerous especially ants In southern Africa the Kalahari and Namib deserts have there own distinctive fauna South of the Sahara is a large region called the Sahel which is changing from grassland to semidesert as the result of changing climate and overgrazing by domesticated animals It was formerly home to large Baobab trees near Morondava Madagascar These trees are often left even when people have logged other species populations of grazing animals whose numbers have been greatly reduced by over-hunting and competition with livestock In 1985 there were about 500 scimitar horned oryx in Chad and Niger but this gazelle has not been seen in the wild for many years although there are captive populations in Tunisia and Morocco African wild dog was once much more common than now a 2009 survey estimated a total of only about 360 of 5
Madagascar There are many islands around the coast of Africa but Madagascar the fourth-largest island in the world situated several hundred kilometres off the east coast of southern Africa is especially important for endangered animals The reason for its importance is that it has been separated from the African mainland for around 165 million years Its isolation led to the development of many unique mammals birds reptiles and amphibians descended either from animals that were present when Madagascar first became an island or from species that later crossed the ocean from the African mainland Many of these endemic animals have died out since the arrival of people especially the largest animals which were hunted for food Madagascar supports 99 species and subspecies of lemurs 39 of which were first described by zoologists between 2000 and 2008 Of the 51 that were evaluated by the IUCN that year 43 were believed to be threatened six of them Critically Endangered More than 100 birds species are found nowhere else in the world and half of these live only in a relatively small area Five bird famiies mesites ground-rollers cuckoo-rollers asities and vangas live only on Madagascar and the Comoro Islands A big problem facing some of these birds and mammals such as the lemurs is habitat destruction Madagascar does have several impressive national parks but as in many other areas of Africa poverty drives people to cut timber for fuel and hunt animals for food Unless the problem of human poverty is addressed it will remain very difficult to conserve populations of endangered animals this species in the countries of the Sahel including 140 in the Central African Republic where there has since been serious civil unrest Cheetahs and lions both Vulnerable species no longer live in many parts of the Sahel but small numbers remain in Chad and Niger for example As in the Sahara Desert there are still dama and dorcas gazelles but their numbers are much reduced The seasonal wetlands of the Sahel are important areas for migratory birds moving within Africa and using the great flyways between Europe and Asia and southern Africa Savanna grasslands Africa’s most magnificent habitats are its savannas which cover almost half the continent’s area Savanna is a grassland environment and climate is the most important factor in creating it It is crucial that the rainfall is concentrated in six or eight months of the year followed by a long period of drought when fires can occur If the rain was spread evenly throughout the year many such areas would support more trees and would eventually become tropical forest Different savannas support different kinds of grasses and other vegetation and therefore different animals Drier savannas include the Serengeti plains of Tanzania 6 and Kenya’s Laikipia plateau One variety of savanna common in southwest Kenya Tanzania and Uganda is called grouped-tree grassland trees grow only on termite mounds with the intervening soil being too thin or poorly drained to support tree growth Fire often started by lightning is important in maintaining the character of the savanna Although there are many animal casualties savanna fires do not devastate the animal life Most of those killed are invertebrates whose populations generally recover quickly Birds are attracted to the margins of the fires to eat the insects lizards and small mammals escaping the flames Larger animals can usually run fast enough to escape The fauna of the savanna is one of the world’s great wildlife spectacles For this reason some large areas are protected For example the Serengeti Mara National Park in northern Tanzania is a United Nations World Heritage Site About 3 million large mammals live in it including lions cheetahs leopards African elephants giraffes zebras hyenas and African wild dogs Despite the protection given to the park there have nevertheless been problems with poaching Kruger National Park in South Africa is home to at least 147 mammal species including white rhinoceros
