South African Wildlife Plants & Animals


From Big Five to Little Five
big five ,south africa Visitors to South Africa are always keen to catch a glimpse and a photo of the country's celebrated Big Five: elephant, lion, rhinoceros, buffalo and leopard. 

While the big game is magnificent - and includes other giants such as giraffe, hippo, whale and dolphin there's much more to South Africa's wildlife. The country has some of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots, with remarkable birdlife, abundant buck, small game and bizarre insects. To promote these, some clever people have come up with another must-see list: the Little Five. They are the elephant shrew, ant lion, rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver and leopard tortoise.

The Cape Floral Region
protea plant,south africaThe Cape Floral Region - comprising eight protected areas stretching from the Cape Peninsula to the Eastern Cape - was the sixth South African site to be inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).  Unesco's World Heritage Committee declared the 553 000 hectare Cape Floral Region to be "outstanding  universalsignificance to humanity", describing it as "one of the richest areas for plants in the world".  The Cape Floral Region "represents less than 0.5% of the area of Africa, but is home to nearly  20% of the continent's flora," Unesco said in a statement. "Its plant species diversity, density and  endemism are among the highest worldwide, and it has been identified as one of the world's 18 biodiversity hot-spots.

mountains,south africaEight protected areas
The "serial" heritage site comprises eight protected areas considered to be the most important examples of the Cape foral kingdom: Table Mountain, De Hoop Nature Reserve,  the Boland mountain complex, the Groot Winterhoek wilderness area, the Swartberg mountains, the Boosmansbos wilderness area, the Cederberg wilderness area, and Baviaanskloof, which straddles the Western and Eastern Cape boundary.
 
cape flora,south africa Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden on the slopes of Table Mountain is included in the site, the first time a botanical garden has been included in one of Unesco's world heritage sites.  The region follows the Cape fold belt of mountains, the Cedarberg and Hottentots Holland mountains,then cuts through the Langeberg, Outeniquas, Tsitsikamma, Swartberg and Zuurberg mountains, encompassing key sections of the Cape floral kingdom, the smallest and richest of the world's six floral kingdoms - and the only one to be contained within a single country.


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