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LESOTHO 5

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Lesotho falls within the AfroMontane and Sub-Alpine biome that occurs from Table Mountain in Cape Town at the very tip of Africa, through the Cape Fold Mountains, the Drakensberg mountains and then all the way up the East African Rift Valley mountains such a Mount Kilimanjaro and into the Ethiopian highlands. Together with the neighbouring uKhahlamba-Drakensberg in South Africa, the highlands of Lesotho form a hub of ancient floral biodiversity known to botanists as the Drakensberg Alpine Centre. More than 2,000 plant species are indigenous to this region and of these roughly 30 percent are endemic (in other words, they occur nowhere else) and more than 100 are listed as globally threatened.

Many of these mountainous areas are isolated or exist in relict island type populations with similarities in wildlife and especially flora throught the extent of the biome. It is mostly grasslands, called sourveld, because the grasses become very sour with little or no nutritional value during winter. Interspersed between the grasslands are rocky outcrops with proteas growing and strange ephemeral pools or pockets of water in the rocks which are covered in lichens and pierced by bonsai-like shrubs and trees which are naturally dwarfed due to the extreme climate, cold and lack of soil. There are also peat bogs which occur in seeps where natural springs are the start of some of the great rivers such as the Caledon and Orange rivers.

The wildlife of Lesotho is composed of its flora and fauna. Lesotho is known for its prolific wildflowers, most of which bloom during the rainy summer months of November to April. One of the most spectacular and vulnerable of Drakensberg Alpine Centre endemics, the spiral aloe Aloe polyphylla is the national flower of Lesotho and easily recognised by its base of fleshy leaves arranged in a neat almost symmetrical spiral.

its national parks and nature reserves do support small herds of eland, oribi, grey rhebok and other antelope, along with baboons and smaller carnivores such as black-backed jackal, serval and caracal. The most conspicuous small mammal is the rock hyrax, which looks a bit like a guinea pig (though it is in fact more closely related to elephants than rodents) and is often seen sunning itself on boulders or cliffs. The endearing Sloggett’s ice rat, a Drakensberg Alpine Centre endemic associated with moorland above the 2,500m contour, is particularly common and conspicuous in the vicinity of Sani Top, and an important source of nutrition to highland raptors. Lesotho has 60 species of mammals and 339 species of birds.

its national parks and nature reserves do support small herds of eland, oribi, grey rhebok and other antelope, along with baboons and smaller carnivores such as black-backed jackal, serval and caracal. The most conspicuous small mammal is the rock hyrax, which looks a bit like a guinea pig (though it is in fact more closely related to elephants than rodents) and is often seen sunning itself on boulders or cliffs. The endearing Sloggett’s ice rat, a Drakensberg Alpine Centre endemic associated with moorland above the 2,500m contour, is particularly common and conspicuous in the vicinity of Sani Top, and an important source of nutrition to highland raptors.

The Drakensberg rockjumper and Drakensberg siskin are endemic to the Drakensberg Alpine Centre, and this area also forms the core range of the southern bald ibis, Gurney’s sugarbird, yellow-breasted pipit, mountain pipit, buff-streaked chat, bush blackcap and Drakensberg prinia. Other Southern African endemics likely to be encountered in parts of Lesotho include grey-winged francolin, ground woodpecker, forest buzzard, large-billed lark, African rock pipit, yellow-breasted pipit, chorister robin-chat, buff-streaked chat, sentinel rock thrush, pied starling, southern double-collared sunbird, greater double-collared sunbird, Cape weaver and forest canary. The Drakensberg Alpine Centre is an important breeding stronghold for the cliff-nesting near-endemic jackal buzzard and Cape vulture, and it hosts southern Africa’s last viable breeding population of the bearded vulture or lammergeyer.

So Lesotho might be a small country but it is a fascinating one with much beauty to be found in it's rugged mountain fastness.

Info from visitlesothotravel
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