Malundwe Mountain

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Malundwe Mountain, also known as Malundwe Hill, is a mountain in Tanzania. It is located in Mikumi National Park in Morogoro Region.

Tanzania Country in Africa

Tanzania officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands at the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in north-eastern Tanzania.

Mikumi National Park national park

The Mikumi National Park near Morogoro, Tanzania, was established in 1964. It covers an area of 3,230 km² is the fourth largest in the country. The park is crossed by Tanzania's A-7 highway.

Morogoro Region Region in Coastal, Tanzania

Morogoro Region is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the municipality of Morogoro. According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 2,218,492, which was higher than the pre-census projection of 2,209,072. For 2002-2012, the region's 2.4 percent average annual population growth rate was tied for the fourteenth highest in the country. It was also the 22nd most densely populated region with 31 people per square kilometer.

Contents

Geography

Malundwe consists of three peaks along a ridge running north and south. Malundwe's south peak is the highest point in the park, reaching 1290 meters elevation. [1] Malundwe is the highest of a belt of hills that extend east and west through the park, connecting the Uluguru Mountains to the northeast with the Uvidunda Mountains to the west.

The Uluguru Mountains are a mountain range in eastern Tanzania, named after the Luguru tribe. The main portion of the Uluguru Mountains is a ridge running roughly north-south and rising to 2,630 metres (8,600 ft) altitude at its highest point. On the main Uluguru range, 50 villages touch the forest boundary and over 151,000 people are found within the mountain area, often at increasing densities at higher altitudes up to the forest boundary.

The Uvidunda Mountains are a mountain range in Tanzania, in Tanzania's Morogoro Region. They are named for the Vidunda people.

Malundwe's eastern slopes drain into the Ruvu River, its western slopes drain into the Great Ruaha River, and the northern slope drains into the Wami River.

The Ruvu River is a river in eastern Tanzania.

Great Ruaha River river in Tanzania

The Great Ruaha River is a river in south-central Tanzania that flows through the Usangu wetlands and the Ruaha National Park east into the Rufiji River. Its basin catchment area is 83,970 square kilometres (32,421 sq mi). The population of the basin is mainly sustained by irrigation and water-related livelihoods such as fishing and livestock keeping.

Wami River river in East-Tanzania

The Wami River lies entirely within Tanzania in the Pwani Region and Morogoro Region in eastern Tanzania. Its source is specified in the Kaguru Mountains and it flows East entering the Indian Ocean west of Zanzibar. But its catchment area extends from the Kinyasangwe River to far beyond Dodoma to the southern edge of the Maasai Steppe and is denoted with 43,946 km². Only after leaving the Mkata River basin on the northern edge of the Mikumi National Park is its name Wami. Due to deforestation and climatic changes in the region the runoff decreased. Wami river is the southern border of the Saadani National Park, the only coastal National Park in Tanzania.

Ecology

Malundwe is covered with miombo woodland above 700 meters elevation. A patch of evergreen submontane forest covers the peaks, with an area 4.5 km², descending to 800 meters on wetter eastern face of the peaks. [2] The forests are an enclave of the Eastern Arc forests, which extend across higher elevations in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya. [3] 228 species of trees, shrubs, lianas, herbs, and ferns live in the forest. Eight tree species found in the submontane forests – Allanblackia stuhmannii, Beilschmiedia kweo, Dasylepis integra, Diospryros amaniensis, Leptonychia usambarensis, Leptonychia usambarensis, Polyscias stuhlmanni, Uvariodendron usambarense , and Zenkerella perplexa – are endemic to the Eastern Arc forests. Another three – Drypetes usambarica , Greenwaydendron suaveolens , and Isoberlinia scheffleri – are found only in the Eastern Arc forests and the evergreen coastal forests. These endemic and near-endemic trees are 12% of the trees species found in the forest. [4]

Eastern miombo woodlands Ecoregion (WWF)

The Eastern miombo woodlands (AT0706) are an ecoregion of grassland and woodland in southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique.

Eastern Arc forests

The Eastern Arc Forests is a montane tropical moist forest ecoregion of eastern Africa. The ecoregion comprises several separate highland areas above 800 meters in Kenya, and (mostly) Tanzania.

Eastern Arc Mountains Tentative World Heritage Site in Tanzania

The Eastern Arc Mountains is a chain of mountains found in Kenya and Tanzania. The chain runs from northeast to southwest, with the Taita Hills being in Kenya and the other ranges being in Tanzania. They are delimited on the southwest by the fault complex represented by the Makambako Gap that separates them from the Kipengere Range. To the northeast, they are delimited by more recent volcanism represented by Mount Kilimanjaro.

The submontane forests are home to the Usambara Thrush (Turdus roehli), which is endemic to the Eastern Arc forests, and to eight other bird species which are near-endemic, found in the Eastern Arc forests and one other ecoregion – Shelley's greenbul (Andropadus masukuensis), Chapin's apalis (Apalis chapini), Forest batis (Batis mixta), Fülleborn's boubou (Laniarius fuelleborni), Spot-throat (Modulatrix stictigula), Green-headed oriole (Oriolus chlorocephalus), Sharpe's akalat (Sheppardia sharpei), and the Green barbet (Stactolaema olivacea). [5]

Shelleys greenbul species of bird

Shelley's greenbul, or Shelley's bulbul, is a species of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is found in east-central Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Chapins apalis species of bird

The Chapin's apalis is a species of bird in the Cisticolidae family. It is found in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Forest batis species of bird

The forest batis or short-tailed batis is a species of bird in the wattle-eye family, Platysteiridae occurring in eastern Africa.

Conservation

The mountain has been part of Mikumi National Park since its establishment in 1964.

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References

  1. ↑ Collett, Leah & Hawkins, Dawn & ho, Charles & Marwa, William & Norton, Guy. (2007). "A description and evaluation of Malundwe Mountain forest in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania." Conference Paper, December 2007
  2. ↑ Collett, Leah & Hawkins, Dawn & ho, Charles & Marwa, William & Norton, Guy. (2007). "A description and evaluation of Malundwe Mountain forest in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania." Conference Paper, December 2007
  3. ↑ N. D. Burgess et al. (2007). "The biological importance of the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya". Biological Conservation 134 (2007) pp. 209–231.
  4. ↑ Collett, Leah & Hawkins, Dawn & ho, Charles & Marwa, William & Norton, Guy. (2007). "A description and evaluation of Malundwe Mountain forest in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania." Conference Paper, December 2007
  5. ↑ Collett, Leah & Hawkins, Dawn & ho, Charles & Marwa, William & Norton, Guy. (2007). "A description and evaluation of Malundwe Mountain forest in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania." Conference Paper, December 2007

Coordinates: 07°24′S37°18′E / 7.400°S 37.300°E / -7.400; 37.300

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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