| Dinder National Park | |
|---|---|
 Dinder National Park boundaries. | |
  | |
| Coordinates | 12°17′N35°29′E / 12.29°N 35.48°E |
| Area | 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) |
| Established | 1935 |
| Designated | 7 January 2005 |
| Reference no. | 1461 [1] |
Dinder National Park is a national park and biosphere reserve in eastern Sudan, and is connected to Ethiopia's Alitash National Park. [2]
Dinder lies approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi) southeast of Khartoum, on either side of the Dinder River bounded to the north by the Rahad River. [3]
The town of Dinder (100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest) acts as a gateway for tourists wishing to enter the Park. [4]
The area of Dinder was heavily populated when it was first visited by Europeans in 1861. In the 1880s, at the time of the Mahdist War and a famine, the human population vanished. Alfred Harrison found only traces of human habitation in 1925. [3] Dinder was established as a park in 1935 following the London Convention of 1933 and designated in 1979 as a member of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In 1983, the park was extended 2,630 km2 (1,020 sq mi) towards the west. [3]
Dinder National Park is ecologically significant because it falls on the ecotone between the Sahel and Ethiopian Highlands ecoregions. It contains three distinct ecosystems:
The park is home to 27 species of large mammals such as leopard, cheetah, more than 160 bird species, 32 fish species, and small mammals, bats, reptiles, and amphibians. It is in a major flyway used by birds migrating between Eurasia and Africa. There are many North African ostriches residing in the national park as well.
Dinder National Park hosts a healthy population of lions. [2] [5] [6]
The ecology of the park is threatened by encroachment from cattle herders who are being displaced from their traditional grazing lands by the expansion of crop agriculture, through the fundamental cause of expanding regional population. Populations of migrant grazers, including tiang, Roan, waterbuck and reebuck, are under additional pressure as land outside the park that they migrate across has been converted to farmland. Game counts between 1971 and 2001 have shown a precipitous decline in most large mammal species, with the population of waterbuck falling by 85%, reedbuck by 72%, and oribi by 68%. Other species have been extirpated in Dinder since was gazetted, including African bush elephant, black rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tora hartebeest, Nubian giraffe, Soemmerring's gazelle, and the Nile crocodile. [3]
Dinder National Park has been a habitat for the painted hunting dog (Lycaon pictus), but this endangered canid declined in this region. [7]
Burkina Faso is a landlocked Sahel country that shares borders with six nations. It lies between the Sahara desert and the Gulf of Guinea, south of the loop of the Niger River, mostly between latitudes 9° and 15°N, and longitudes 6°W and 3°E. The land is green in the south, with forests and fruit trees, and semi-arid in the north. Most of central Burkina Faso lies on a savanna plateau, 198–305 metres (650–1,001 ft) above sea level, with fields, brush, and scattered trees. Burkina Faso's game preserves – the most important of which are Arly, Nazinga, and W National Park—contain lions, elephants, hippopotamus, monkeys, common warthogs, and antelopes. Previously the endangered painted hunting dog, Lycaon pictus occurred in Burkina Faso, but, although the last sightings were made in Arli National Park, the species is considered extirpated from Burkina Faso.
The Pendjari National Park lies in north western Benin, adjoining the Arli National Park in Burkina Faso. Named for the Pendjari River, the national park is known for its wildlife and is home to some of the last populations of big game like the African forest elephant, lion, hippopotamus, African buffalo, and various antelopes in West Africa. The park is also famous for its richness in birds.
The Niokolo-Koba National Park is a World Heritage Site and natural protected area in south eastern Senegal near the Guinea border. It is served by Niokolo-Koba Airport, an unpaved airstrip.
Panthera leo leo is a lion subspecies present in West Africa, northern Central Africa and India. In West and Central Africa it is restricted to fragmented and isolated populations with a declining trajectory. It has been referred to as the northern lion.
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Nechisar National Park is a national park in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. It is in the Great Rift Valley within the southwestern Ethiopian Highlands.
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The East Sudanian savanna is a hot, dry, tropical savanna ecoregion of Central and East Africa.
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The Dinder River is a tributary of the Blue Nile. It flows through Ethiopia and Sudan for 480 kilometres (300 mi).
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Arly-Singou is a 6,388 km2 (2,466 sq mi) large ecosystem in Burkina Faso. It encompasses the Arli National Park and the Singou Reserve. It is considered to comprise part of the most significant and important savanna woodland wildlife areas still existing in West Africa.
Bénoué National Park is a national park of Cameroon and a UNESCO designated Biosphere Reserve. It is 180,000 ha in size. The park has a wide frontage to the Bénoué River, which stretches for over 100 km (62 mi), forming the eastern boundary. The public road to Tcholliré cuts across the northern part of the park. The western boundary is made up of the main road linking the towns of Garoua to the north, with Ngaoundéré to the south. The park can be accessed coming north from Ngaoundéré.
Bouba Njida National Park is a national park of Cameroon. A total of 23 antelope species occur in the park. The painted hunting dog, Lycaon pictus, had been observed in Bouba Njida National Park at the start of the 21st century. This population of the endangered canid is one of the few that remained in Cameroon as of the year 2000.
The Harenna Forest is a montane tropical evergreen forest in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains. The forest covers the southern slope of the mountains, extending from 1450 to 3200 meters elevation. The Bale Mountains are in Ethiopia's Oromia Region, and form the southwestern portion of the Ethiopian Highlands.
The African wild dog, also known as the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet, and by a lack of dewclaws. It's estimated that there are around 6,600 adults living in 39 subpopulations that are all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation probably comprises fewer than 250 individuals, the African wild dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990.
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Boma National Park is a protected area in eastern South Sudan near the Ethiopian border. It was established in 1977 and covers 22,800 km2 (8,800 sq mi) of grasslands and floodplains.
