Find Carnivores like Lion & Hyaena | Abundant in Kruger Park Bangu Rugged Veld

Bangu Rugged Veld

Fauna

This shrub veld is ideal habitat for wildebeest and zebra. These species were mainly responsible for overgrazing in this area in the past. Impala are less common but kudu and giraffe are plentiful. The area is preferred to a lesser extent by buffalo and elephant, but carnivores such as lion and hyaena are abundant.
Location and Geomorphology
This landscape occurs as a strip that extends from the Timbavati picnic area up to the Lebombo Mountains at the Olifants River. It covers 204 km/2 or one percent of the KNP. This area is lightly undulating basalt terrain and is drained via the Bangu and Ngotsa spruits into the Olifants River. This landscape occupies the middleslopes to the Olifants and Timbavati Rivers and Varies in altitude between 250 and 300 metres

Climate

The area is relatively dry, not only because of the low rainfall but also as a result of shallow stony soils and steep slopes. The landscapes receives between 500 and 550 mm rain annually and the temperature is high in summer and mild in winter (Tables 3 and 5 for Satara and Letaba).

Soil Pattern

The soils of this landscape are shallow, dark brown to grey in colour, melanic to orthic and contains a reasonable amount of weathered basalt in the profile. Lime concretions are common and the dominant soil Forms are Milkwood, Mispah, Mayo and Glenrosa. The shallow soils and steep slopes cause the area to be relatively dry and prone to erosion.

Vegetation

The vegetation of this area is described by Coetzee (1983) as an Acacia nigrescens/Grewia bicolor-dominated shrub veld (Fig. 48). The area was severely overgrazed in the past and shows distinct signs of retrogressive succession. With the exception of Acacia nigrescens and Grewia bicolor the following woody species also occur: Terminalia prunioides, Acacia exuvialis, A. tortilis, Maerua parvifolia, Dichrostachys cinerea subsp. africana, Commiphora africana, Grewia villosa and Securinega virosa. The field layer is sparse to moderate and the grasses are mostly annual species with a great variety of forbs present.
Fig. 48. Landscape 20. Bangu Rugged Veld. – page 76
Panicum coloratum, Aristida congesta subsp. barbicollis, Enneapogon cenchroides, Brachiaria xantholeuca, Bothriochloa radicans, Schmidtia pappophoroides, Heliotropium steudneri, Solanum panduraeforme. Indigofera floribunda and Barleria prionitis are the dominant species. Gertenbach (in prep.) classifies this landscape as a Panicum coloratum/Bothriochloa radicans/Acacia nigrescens sub-association and it shows great similarity to the vegetation of landscape 21.