The wildlife of Malawi is composed of the flora and fauna of the country. Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, with Lake Malawi taking up about a third of the country's area. It has around 187 species of mammal, some 648 species of birds have been recorded in the country and around 500 species of fish, many of them endemic, are found in its lakes and rivers. About 20% of the country has been set aside as national parks and game and forest reserves.
The flora and fauna are much influenced by the geography of the region. Malawi is a land-locked country, dominated by the Great Rift Valley which has a north – south orientation, and is 860 km (534 mi) long and between 90 and 200 km (56 and 124 mi) wide. The main feature is Lake Malawi which forms much of the eastern boundary of the country. The lake is drained by the Shire River which flows southwards to join the lower Zambezi in neighbouring Mozambique. Lake Malawi is 460 m (1,500 ft) above sea level but is 700 m (2,300 ft) deep in places. It is bordered on the west by a narrow plain, above which the land rises steeply to form high plateaux, generally between 900 and 1,200 m (3,000 and 3,900 ft) above sea level. To the north, the Nyika Plateau rises to 2,600 m (8,500 ft). To the south lie the gently rolling Shire Highlands, and to the extreme south the land falls away towards the Zambezi floodplain. Lake Chilwa, the second biggest lake, is near the Mozambique border and has no outlet. [2]
Malawi has a tropical continental climate which is somewhat influenced by the country's proximity to the sea. Temperatures rise from September until the beginning of the rainy season in November, after which the climate is warm and wet until April after which it becomes cooler and dry. The annual rainfall varies from 700 to 3,000 mm (28 to 118 in) in different parts of the country. Frosts can be experienced in the highest mountains in the north, and the temperature may reach 42 °C (108 °F) in Shire Valley in the south. [3]
About 21% of Malawi has been set aside for the protection of its natural flora and fauna, as national parks, forest reserves and wildlife reserves. These include the Kasungu National Park, the Nyika National Park, the Lengwe National Park, the Liwonde National Park and the Lake Malawi National Park. [3]
The western part of the country lies in the Southern Miombo woodlands ecoregion, characterised by tall trees with a lower storey of shrubs and grasses. [4] The natural vegetation of much of the low- and mid-level areas of Malawi is a form of deciduous forest and shrubland known as Zambezian and mopane woodlands. Between 500 and 1,500 m (1,600 and 4,900 ft) this is mostly miombo woodland, dominated by Brachystegia trees which are often interspersed with Julbernardia and Isoberlinia trees. [3]
Much of the forest has been cleared to make way for agricultural land. Mopane woodland, dominated by Colophospermum mopane, used to be abundant but only a few patches remain. Similarly, Acacia / Combretum woodland has largely been depleted, but larger areas of rainforest remain at mid to high altitudes, especially in the north of the country. [3] The high plateaux are clad in low grasses, heathers and heaths, with many flowering plants blooming after the rainy season. [5] Swamps are found in the Shire Valley and around Lake Chilwa. [3] Wild date palms grow in some highland areas and near the Shire River, and raffia palms are found near upland streams and are common in the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. Around four hundred species of orchid have been recorded in the country, 120 of them epiphytic. They are most abundant in Nyika National Park and growing on the surrounding mountainsides. [5]
About 187 species of mammals have been recorded in Malawi. Of these, 55 are bats and 52 are rodents. The people living in rural Malawi are mostly subsistence farmers; they do not appreciate their crops being trampled and eaten and will hunt or drive off wild animals. [6] [ self-published source ] Elephants, lions, leopards, African buffaloes, hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses are present in the country but their numbers are low except in national parks and game reserves. More numerous are jackals and spotted hyenas, African wildcats, caracal and serval. Smaller predators include mongooses, genets, civets, striped polecats, honey badgers, spotted-necked and African clawless otters. [5]
Antelopes occurring in Malawi include the common eland, the greater kudu, the waterbuck, the sable and roan antelopes, the bushbuck, the nyala, the impala, the southern reedbuck and several smaller species of antelope. Primates present in the country include yellow and chacma baboons, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, thick-tailed and lesser bushbabies. [5]
Some 648 species of bird have been recorded in Malawi of which 456 are resident and another 94 are migratory within Africa, and some of these may breed in the country. Around 77 species are flying between eastern Asia and South Africa. Species of global concern which pass through in small numbers include the pallid harrier, lesser kestrel, corn crake and great snipe, as well as lesser flamingo and Malagasy pond heron. [3] Lake Chilwa supports 160 species, some of which are resident. [7]
Malawi is at the southern end of the range for many East African birds, and the northern limit for some South African species. Evergreen forest provides a particularly rich list of bird species, and the miombo woodland supports many species that are found nowhere else. The lakes and marshes are rich in species, with Lake Chilwa having a greater diversity of birds than Lake Malawi. [5]
There are about five hundred species of fish in Malawi, with over 90% of them being endemic; this is a greater number of species than occur in Europe and North America in total. [5] Along with Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi contains a larger number of endemic species than any other freshwater lake in the world. [8] The majority of species present are cichlids, which are mouthbrooders, and many of these species are found in small localised areas of the lakes and nowhere else. Other fish are also present and are hunted as part of the local fishing industry. These include the African catfish, various species of carp, and a small sardine-like fish present in large shoals which are caught by trawling. [5] The commonest fish in Lake Chilwa are Barbus paludinosus , Oreochromis shiranus chilwae , Clarias gariepinus , Brycinus imberi and Gnathonemus . [8]
Insects are plentiful in Malawi, including large numbers of ants, beetles, crickets, flies, bees and wasps. There are probably thousands of species of butterfly and moth in the country, including butterflies in the families Satyridae, Nymphalidae, Papilionidae and Pieridae, and moths in the Noctuidae. [9]
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa. It is wholly within the tropics; from about 9°30S at its northernmost point to about 17°S at the southernmost tip. The country occupies a thin strip of land between Zambia and Mozambique, extending southwards into Mozambique along the valley of the Shire River. In the north and north east it also shares a border with Tanzania. Malawi is connected by rail to the Mozambican ports of Nacala and Beira. It lies between latitudes 9° and 18°S, and longitudes 32° and 36°E.
Zomba District is one of twelve districts in the Southern Region of Malawi, surrounded by the districts of Chiradzulu, Blantyre, Mulanje, Phalombe, Machinga, Balaka and the Republic of Mozambique to the east. The total land area is 2,363 km2, representing three percent of the total land area of Malawi. The capital is Zomba.
The Lower Zambezi National Park lies on the north bank of the Zambezi River in southeastern Zambia. Until 1983 when the area was declared a national park, the area was the private game reserve of Zambia's president. This has resulted in the park being protected from the ravages of mass tourism and remains one of the few pristine wilderness areas left in Africa. On the opposite bank is Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park. The two parks sit on the Zambezi flood plain ringed by mountains. The area is a world heritage site. In fashion with the current trend in Southern Africa, there is talk of linking the two parks to form a massive trans-frontier park.
Liwonde National Park, also known as Liwonde Wildlife Reserve, is a national park in southern Malawi, near the Mozambique border. The park was established in 1973, and has been managed by the nonprofit conservation organization African Parks since August 2015. African Parks built an electric fence around the perimeter of the park to help mitigate human-wildlife conflict. In early 2018, the adjacent Mangochi Forest Reserve was also brought under African Parks' management, almost doubling the size of the protected area.
The Eastern miombo woodlands (AT0706) are an ecoregion of grassland and woodland in northern Mozambique, southern Tanzania, and southeastern Malawi.
The wildlife of Mozambique consists of the flora and fauna of this country in southeastern Africa. Mozambique has a range of different habitat types and an ecologically rich and diverse wildlife. This includes 236 species of mammal, 740 species of bird and 5,692 species of vascular plant. The Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany hotspot, with significantly high levels of biodiversity, stretches from the southern tip of Mozambique into northeastern South Africa.
The wildlife of Zambia refers to the natural flora and fauna of Zambia. This article provides an overview, and outline of the main wildlife areas or regions, and compact lists of animals focusing on prevalence and distribution in the country rather than on taxonomy. More specialized articles on particular groups are linked from here.
The Zambezian flooded grasslands is an ecoregion of southern and eastern Africa that is rich in wildlife.
The biomes and ecoregions in the ecology of Zambia are described, listed and mapped here, following the World Wildlife Fund's classification scheme for terrestrial ecoregions, and the WWF freshwater ecoregion classification for rivers, lakes and wetlands. Zambia is in the Zambezian region of the Afrotropical biogeographic realm. Three terrestrial biomes are well represented in the country . The distribution of the biomes and ecoregions is governed mainly by the physical environment, especially climate.
Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, is the largest and oldest wildlife reserve in Malawi, near Nkhotakota. The park's hilly terrain features dambos and miombo woodlands as the dominant vegetation, which support a variety of mammal and bird species. Poaching has greatly reduced the number of elephants and other large mammals in Nkhotakota, but conservation efforts to restore the elephant population started when African Parks began managing the reserve in 2015.
Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve is a national game reserve in Malawi.
The South Malawi montane forest-grassland mosaic is an ecoregion of Malawi.
The Central Zambezian miombo woodlands ecoregion spans southern central Africa. Miombo woodland is the predominant plant community. It is one of the largest ecoregions on the continent, and home to a great variety of wildlife, including many large mammals.
The Zambezian dry evergreen forest, also known as the Zambezian Cryptosepalum dry forest, is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion of Southern Africa. It consists of several areas of thick forest in western Zambia and adjacent Angola. It is one of the largest areas of tropical evergreen forest outside the equatorial zone.
The Zambezian and mopane woodlands is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion of southeastern Africa.
Zambezi National Park is a national park located upstream from Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. It was split off from Victoria Falls National Park in 1979 and is 56,000 hectares in size. The park is bisected by a road to Kazungula, dividing it into a riverine side and a Chamabonda Vlei side. Most of the park is within the ecoregion of Zambezian and Mopane woodlands, while a small portion in the south is within the Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands.
The Southern miombo woodlands is a tropical grasslands and woodlands ecoregion extending across portions of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The Zambezian region is a large biogeographical region in Africa. The Zambezian region includes woodlands, savannas, grasslands, and thickets, extending from east to west in a broad belt across the continent. The Zambezian region lies south of the rainforests of the Guineo-Congolian region. The Zambezian region is bounded by deserts and xeric shrublands on the southwest, the Highveld grasslands of South Africa to the south, and the subtropical Maputaland forests on the southeast.