Tygerberg Nature Reserve | |
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Tygerberg Nature Reserve | |
Map of the City of Cape Town | |
Location | Bellville, South Africa |
Coordinates | 33°52′42″S18°35′50″E / 33.8783°S 18.5972°E Coordinates: 33°52′42″S18°35′50″E / 33.8783°S 18.5972°E |
Area | 300 ha (740 acres) |
Established | 1973 |
City of Cape Town Nature Reserves |
Tygerberg Nature Reserve is a 300-hectare (740-acre) nature reserve on the Tygerberg Hills in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa.
This nature reserve one of the few surviving pockets of the highly threatened Swartland Shale Renosterveld vegetation type. [1] The 300 ha reserve has an exceptional number of species. There are nearly five hundred different plant species here, twelve of which are threatened with extinction and eight of which exist only in Cape Town. Three of the plant species of Tygerberg exist only within the boundaries of the reserve itself. In addition, there are over a hundred bird species and a variety of wild mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The Plattekloof Dam is located just west of the hills, and is being restored to a natural wetland. The park hosts the Kristo Pienaar Environmental Education Centre with its library and resource centre. This is a popular venue for school excursions and education programmes. [2]
The name Tygerberg (“Tiger Mountain”) comes from the characteristic spots, or “heuweltjies” which exist in Shale Renosterveld. They can be seen from a distance, covering these hills, and early settlers thus named the hills after an animal that they mistakenly believed had spots on its skin. [3]
Fynbos is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting about 80% species of the Cape floral kingdom where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it.
The Cape Floristic Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province.
Renosterveld is a term used for one of the major plant communities and vegetation types of the Cape Floristic Region which is located in southwestern and southeastern South Africa, in southernmost Africa. It is an ecoregion of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
Rondebosch Common is an open common of about 40 hectares in Rondebosch, Cape Town in South Africa. A common is defined as "A piece of open land for public use, esp. in a village or town." It contains one of the only surviving pockets of the critically endangered “Cape Flats Sand Fynbos” vegetation type, which exists nowhere else in the world.
Klapmuts is the name of both a hill, and a town which formed at its foot. They are located in Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Cape Flats Sand Fynbos (CFSF), previously known as Sand Plain Fynbos, is a critically endangered vegetation type that occurs only within the city of Cape Town. Less than 1% of this unique lowland fynbos vegetation is conserved.
Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos is a critically endangered vegetation type that is endemic to Cape Town. Though closest to Fynbos, it has characteristics of both Fynbos and Renosterveld vegetation and is thus actually a unique hybrid vegetation type.
Peninsula Shale Renosterveld (PSR) is a unique vegetation type that is found only on the slopes of Signal Hill and Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa. It is critically endangered and exists nowhere else.
Swartland Shale Renosterveld is a critically endangered vegetation type of the Western Cape, South Africa.
De Hel Nature Area is a 21.3-hectare (53-acre) nature reserve protecting a river valley and indigenous forest on the lower eastern slopes of Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa.
Meadowridge Common is an 8-hectare (20-acre) reserve in the Meadowridge suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, which preserves a fragment of critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos vegetation.
Edith Stephens Wetland Park is a nature reserve for wetlands and fynbos, located in the city of Cape Town, South Africa.
Uitkamp Wetland Nature Reserve is a 32-hectare (79-acre) wetland reserve located in Durbanville in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Bracken Nature Reserve is a 36-hectare (89-acre) piece of protected land in Brackenfell in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Durbanville Nature Reserve is a 6-hectare (15-acre) piece of protected land, located next to the Durbanville Racecourse in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Helderberg Nature Reserve is a 398-hectare (980-acre) nature reserve in Somerset West, South Africa.
Blaauwberg Nature Reserve was proclaimed a local and provincial nature reserve in 2007. The reserve has views down fynbos slopes, across the city, to seven kilometres of rocky and sandy coastline and the ocean and beyond. The reserve presents itself as one of the few viewpoints in the world from where you can see two proclaimed world heritage sites, namely Table Mountain and Robben Island.
Macassar Dunes Conservation Area is a 1,116-hectare (2,760-acre) coastal nature reserve in Macassar, within the City of Cape Town, South Africa.
Silwerboomkloof Natural Heritage Site is a small, protected valley (“kloof”), near the Helderberg Nature Reserve, in Somerset West, South Africa.
Kogelberg Nature Reserve is a nature reserve of 3,000 ha comprising the Kogelberg Mountain Range, to the east of Cape Town, South Africa.
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