South Africa has a wealth of life. Wildlife ranges from Aardwolf to Zebra, from puku to pangolin, from caracal to hirax. South Africa is home to: – (2002-3 South Africa at a Glance, Editors Inc.):
- The world’s largest land mammal (African elephant)
- The smallest (a shrew the size of a human fingertip)
- The tallest (giraffe)
- The fastest (cheetah)
- The heaviest reptile (leatherback turtle)
- The largest antelope (eland)
- The largest bird (ostrich)
- The heaviest flying bird (Kori Bustard)
- 900 bird species — 10% of the world’s variety on 1% of its land area
- 6 000 different spiders, 175 varieties of scorpion and 100 different snakes
- 23 200 different plants — richest zone on earth in terms of species to area.
South Africa boasts “The ‘Big 5’” – i.e., Elephant, Leopard, Rhinoceros, Buffalo and Lion.
South Africa also boasts the “The Big Sea Five” — i.e., Whale, Shark, Dolphin, Marlin and Tuna. 2002-3 South Africa at a Glance, Editors Inc.
South Africa has the third highest level of biodiversity in the world. www.insanetree.com
The Kruger National Park supports the greatest variety of wildlife species on the African continent. The Embassy of South Africa in Jakarta
The 3 000 kilometers or so of South African coastline form one of the richest, most biologically diverse and most oceanographically complex marine environments on Earth – the Serengeti of the sea. National Geographic, August 2002
South Africa is home to more kinds of mammals than North and South America combined (or Europe and Asia combined) and has 10% of the planet’s birdlife. The country is the richest in the world in terms of plant species to area – 1.7 times richer than Brazil. Ivan Booth, South Africa: Reasons to Stay
South Africa has one-sixth of the world’s marine species, the world’s richest floral kingdom and is an important destination for birdwatchers. 2002-3 South Africa at a Glance, Editors Inc.
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens was declared one of the world’s top seven gardens at the International Botanical Congress in 1999.
Johannesburg is one of the most treed cities in the world.
The trees of Johannesburg are one of the largest non-commercial forests in the world. www.insanetree.com
Johannesburg is set to learn valuable lessons in dealing with crime and grime after it signed an historical twinning agreement with New York City in February 2003. Sourced by Ivan Booth (www.alerts.co.za)
In South Africa there are 18 000 indigenous plant species of which 80% don’t occur anywhere else in the world. www.insanetree.com
Every year, the Namaqualand desert bursts into a kaleidoscope of color as carpets of flowers bloom following the first
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