Khaudom National Park

IUCN Category II - National Park

BWf1

The 4000 -square-kilometer Khaudum National Park (also Khaudom; earlier Khaudum Wildlife Park ) is located south of the entrance to the Caprivi Strip in the Kavango region in northeastern Namibia -east. He is one of the most pristine wildlife areas in Namibia, difficult to access and touristy virtually undeveloped. Landscape, the park offers extensive dry forests on predominantly sandy soil with a flat relief and a numerous and diverse fauna with big game, predators, many species of antelope and over 320 bird species.

Geography

The Khaudum National Park is located in the area of the Kalahari Sand Lake, which is marked by orange - red, running east -west longitudinal dunes. These dunes are now stabilized by vegetation and are therefore no longer moved. The sand sea is traversed in many places by dry watercourses, called Omuramba. The three largest Omiramba, Nhoma, Cwiba and Khaudum ( Rivier ) by pulling the Khaudum game park in south-east direction. They play an important ecological role, as their peaty river bed absorbs the rainfall during the rainy season and also gets up during the dry season.

Climate

The Kavango region - East offers a long dry season from April to November and a subsequent wet season from December to March. In the dry season in the winter the humidity is 30%, the maximum daily temperatures during the day over at 25 ° C, at night, the temperature in cold days but fall to below 5 ° C. The summer rainy season is characterized by a humidity of 60% and daytime highs between 30 ° and 40 ° C. Even at night the temperatures drop below 15 ° C. The annual rainfall in the Khaudum region are at 550 mm, with 80% falling from December to March.

Vegetation

The relatively high rainfall allow outside the Omiramba extensive dry forests, even though a large part of the rainfall seeps into the Kalahari sands. The dominant vegetation in the park are species-rich, high and short dry forest and along the park by pulling Omiramba Acacia dry forest.

In high dry forest the trees reach a stature height up to 10 m, and there is relatively dense undergrowth. The species spectrum consists mainly of Mukwa ( Pterocarpus angolensis ), Rhodesian Teak ( Baikiaea plurijuga ) Sandseringe ( Burkea africana) and False Mopane ( Guibourtia coleosperma ). In the undergrowth to find different Bauhinien and Baphia massaiensis.

In contrast to the high dry forest trees of the short dry forest reached only about 5 m Height. Understory comes here because of the lack of shading before barely. Determining species Weis strain ( Boscia angustifolia), apple tree leaf ( Lonchocarpus neisii ) and yellow wood ( Terminalia Serica ). Interspersed you will also find Anabaum ( Faidherbia albida ) and Grewia spp.

Along the Omiramba there are dense stands of Acacia dry forest, often with very large individuals of camel thorn (Acacia erioloba ), sand box, acacia (Acacia fleckii ), Candle (Acacia hebeclada ) and sleeve ring acacia ( Vachellia tortilis ). Occasionally, but can also be ancestral tree species ( Combretum imberbe ) and ( Combretum hereroense ). The bottoms of the Omiramba are swampy - peat and have a dense reed bed with many grasses and reeds (Phragmites ), in the Bauhinienarten, but also water lilies are interspersed.

Some calcareous surveys show a deviating vegetation, dominated in the blood fruit tree ( Terminalia prunoides ).

Fauna

Due to the virginity of the nature reserve is found in the extensive dry forests, a rich and varied wildlife. The ideal time for game viewing is between June and October. Bird lovers will find in the period from November to March, 320 species of birds, including several parrots and over 50 birds of prey.

On big game can be found in the park at times more than 500 elephants, giraffes and many many antelope species including roan antelope, gemsbok, wildebeest, kudu, steenbok, Topi ( tsessebe ), hartebeest, eland and reedbuck. The stock of predators is high. In addition to smaller cats, there is a larger population of lions, but also leopards, spot hyenas, jackals and occasionally even cheetah and hyena dogs.

Tourism

The Khaudum National Park is very remote and can only be reached through deep sandy tracks. Access is possible only with four-wheel vehicles and the convoy. Apart from two unsecured Camps ( Sikeretti and Khaudum ) with Spartan cabins and campgrounds, the park is not touristy and also offers no benefit options. While there is a 300- kilometer network of pistes, which often is hardly passable and four-wheel drives requires.

Both camps as well as the National Park were closed in May 2013, the end of June 2013, it was reopened.