Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
temperate climate, the isolaion of the
such areas is much less disinct.
7. Ethiopia. The enire highland region of
Ethiopia.
forest birds, Moreau (1966) recognised seven
Montane Forest Groups in Africa.
l. Cameroun. This includes the mountains
of westen Cameroun, principally those
from Mount Cameroun to the Bamenda
Highlands, extending into Nigeria at the
Obudu and Mambilla plateaux. The
mountains on the island of Bioko
(formerly Fenando Po), Equatorial
Guinea, are also part of the Cameroun
Group as defined by Moreau.
2. Angola. This is the smallest of Moreau's
Groups, restricted to the highlands around
Mount Moco and parts of the narrow
escarpment which runs down the western
side of the counry.
3. East Zaire. This comprises the montane
forests on both sides of the rift valley.
This area extends from the Lendu Plateau
in Zaire and Mount Rwenzori on the
Uganda/Zaire border, south through .
Rwanda and Burundi to Mahale Mountam
in westen Tanzania and the Marungu
Highlands in southeasten Zare.
4. Kenya. This Group is cenred on the
Kenyan Highlands, extending north to the
isolated mountains of northen Kenya (i.e.
Kulal and Marsabit), northeasten
Uganda, and southern Sudan (the lmatong
Mountains), and south to the mountains
of northen Tanzania (as far as the Mbulu
Mountains, the Crater Highlands, Mount
Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro).
5. Tanzania/Malawi. This Group is centred
on the mountains of easten Tanzania,
extending north to the Pare Mountains,
and also to the Taita Hills and Kasigau in
southeastern Kenya. The southen part of
the Group includes all the mountains of
Malawi (including those just across the
border in Zambia), and the mountains in
Mozambique north of the Zambezi iver.
6. South of the Zambezi. This includes the
mountains of easten Zimbabwe and those
in Mozambique south of the Zambezi
River. It also includes the forests of South
Africa, though here, in the more
Within each of these Groups, the montane for-
est avifauna is said to have a similar species com-
posiion. However, Moreau does not provide any
species lists for these forests, or Groups, and
hence a detailed appraisal of the data on which he
based his conclusions is not possible. Neverthe-
less, Moreau's Montane Forest Groups have
found general acceptance amongst oithologists
and naturalists who consider he Groups to be
generally correct, if not self-evident. Minor
adjusments to the Group boundaries have been
made by Dowsett (1971), but these are also not
substaniated by any species lists or analysis.
This chapter starts by reviewing the montane
forest avifauna of Africa as a whole, and then
ocuses in paricular on the forests of easten
Tanzania. Onithologists have concenrated on
the forests of easten Tanzania because of their
large number of rare and endemic species. In
paricular, attention has been paid to the Usam-
bara Mountains, where R. E. Moreau lived
between 1928 and 1946. Moreau made major
conribuions to African zoogeography, with a
paricular focus on montane forest avifaunas,
culminaing in his widely cited book (Moreau,
1966). More recently, the easten Tazanian for-
ests have received attenion on account of the
criical conservaion problems which they pose
(Stuart, 1983, 1985; Collar & Stuart, 1985,
1988). In this chapter, an overview is presented of
the zoogeography of the easten Tanzanian mon-
tane orest avifauna, paying paricular attenion to
its disinciveness, diversity, levels of endemism
and likely origins.
The African montane forest avifauna
Pupose and methos of anayss
In recent years, many more species lists for
individual montane forests have been published,
thus making it possible to study regional variaions
in species composiion more accurately than
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