Udzungwa Mountains

The Udzungwa Mountains represent the largest mountain range in the chain of geological approximately 200 million years old, the Eastern Arc Mountains. They are among the most biodiverse regions on Earth and are home to a high proportion of endemic species.

Geography

The Udzungwa Mountains are located in central Tanzania (7 ° 40' -8 ° 40 ' S and 35 ° 10' -36 ° 50 ' E). They are mostly located in the municipality of Iringa ( in the districts Kilolo, Mufindi ) and to a lesser extent in the district of Morogoro ( districts Kilosa and Kilombero ). In the mountains there are at least 146 villages / settlements, inhabited by about 700,000 people. The highest point is 2,576 m of Luhombero in the West. The second highest peak is 2265 m of Mwanihana in the southeast.

The Sanje Falls consist of a cascade of three waterfalls that pour more than 300 m in depth.

Ecosystem

The massifs of the Eastern Arc Mountains carry remnants of rain forests, which originated about 30 million years. Both the massif and the forest share the Udzungwa Mountains are particularly large. The forest area of the Udzungwa Mountains covers a total area of about 10,000 square kilometers and is particularly rich in species. It extends to altitudes of 300 m to over 2,000 m and has the largest vertical extent of any East African forest areas.

In the low-lying areas in the east, with mostly tropical rainforest, trees grow up to 50 m height, the central and southern areas of the park at altitudes up to 1,000 m are covered by grassland, miombo woodland and a few mountain forests. To the west are steppe and steppe forests.

Due to the long development times, the isolation ( by the surrounding steppes ) and the variety of habitats including the Udzungwa Mountains to the areas with the world's highest biodiversity. So far, 118 species of mammals were detected, including 5 strict endemics: the two primate species Udzungwa Red Colobus ( Piliocolobus gordonorum ), the Sanje Mangabey ( Cercocebus sanjei ), as well as the Congosorex Shrew Congosorex phillipsorum, the elephant shrews Graugesichtiges elephant shrew ( Rhynchocyon udzungwensis ) and Myosorex kihaulei as representatives of the African forest shrews are native only in the Udzungwa mountains.

Other endemics or near- endemics are Redwing Sunbird ( Cinnyris rufipennis ) Udzungwawachtel ( Xenoperdix udzungwensi ) Kipunji Monkey ( Rungwecebus kipunji ), Zanzibar Bushbaby ( Galago zanzibaricus ) and Abbott's duiker ( Cephalophus spadix ). The protection of this ecosystem is the existing since 1992, 1900 km ² large Udzungwa Mountains National Park.

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