Table Mountain National Park

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Table Mountain National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)

Table Mountain seen from the slopes of Lion's Head
Table Mountain National Park is located in South Africa
Location of the park
Location Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Coordinates 33°58′00″S 18°25′30″E / 33.9666667°S 18.425°E / -33.9666667; 18.425Coordinates: 33°58′00″S 18°25′30″E / 33.9666667°S 18.425°E / -33.9666667; 18.425
Area 221 km2 (85 sq mi)
Established 19 May 1998
Governing body South African National Parks
Official website
For information about the 2006 fire that occurred here, please see 2006 Table Mountain fire

Table Mountain National Park, previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, is a national park in Cape Town, South Africa, proclaimed on May 29, 1998 for the purpose of protecting the natural environment of the Table Mountain Chain, and in particular the rare fynbos vegetation. The park is managed by South African National Parks.

The park contains two well-known landmarks: Table Mountain, for which the park is named; and the Cape of Good Hope, the southwesternmost extremity of Africa.

Contents

[edit] Geography

The front face of Table Mountain, as seen from Signal Hill.

The park runs approximately north-south along the range of mountains that make up the mountainous spine of the Cape Peninsula, from Signal Hill in the north, through Lion's Head, Table Mountain, Constantiaberg, Silvermine, the mountains of the southern Peninsula, terminating at Cape Point.

The park is not a single contiguous area; the undeveloped mountainous areas which make up most of the park are separated by developed urban areas on shallower terrain. Thus the park is divided into three separate sections, as listed below.

[edit] Table Mountain section

This section covers Signal Hill, Lion's Head, Table Mountain proper, including the Back Table (the rear, lower part of the mountain), Devil's Peak, the Twelve Apostles (actually a series of seventeen peaks along the Atlantic seaboard), and Orange Kloof (a specially protected area not open to the public). It borders on central Cape Town in the north, Camps Bay and the Atlantic coast in the west, the Southern Suburbs in the east, and Hout Bay in the south.

This section was formed from the Table Mountain National Monument, the Cecilia State Forest, and Newlands Forest. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is not officially part of the national park, but its higher reaches are maintained as part of the park.

[edit] Silvermine-Tokai section

This section runs northwest-southeast across the Peninsula from the Atlantic seaboard to the False Bay coast. It covers Constantiaberg, Steenberg Peak and the Kalk Bay mountains. It borders on Hout Bay in the north-west, the suburbs of Constantia and Tokai in the north-east, Kalk Bay in the south-east, and Fish Hoek and Noordhoek in the south-west.

This section was formed from the Tokai State Forest and the Silvermine Nature Reserve.

[edit] Cape Point section

View to the south over Cape Point; the lighthouse's white dome is just visible.

This section covers the southernmost area of the Cape Peninsula, stretching from Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope in the south, as far north as Scarborough on the Atlantic coast and Simon's Town on the False Bay coast. It was formed from the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve.

[edit] Flora

This area forms part of the Cape Floristic Region and as such supports a high diversity of flora, much of which is rare and endemic. Proteas, ericas, restios as well as members of the Asteraceae as well as geophytes are all found in abundance.

In particular, the Silver Tree (Leucadendron argenteum), a popularly cultivated species, is found in the wild only on the slopes of Lion's Head and a few scattered locations elsewhere on the Cape Peninsula (a notable area is above Kirstenbosch[1]).

Major threats to the flora include poaching for sangoma medicines, invasive species such as Port Jackson Fig, three Hakea species, and pines.

[edit] Fauna

Larger predators that historically roamed the area include the Cape Lion, leopard (which persisted as late as the 1920s, and tracks are claimed to still be found today[2]), as well as spotted hyena and black-backed jackal. Large herbivores similarly disappeared at the hands of the European settlers, for example African Bush Elephant, black rhinoceros, kudu, eland, mountain zebra and bontebok, although the last three species were re-introduced to the Cape Point section of the park [3].

Smaller mammals are still found in the park: caracal, rock hyrax and a variety of small antelope species, such as the Cape Grysbok and notably the recently re-introduced klipspringer.

The population of the alien Himalayan Tahr orginated from a pair that escaped from the now defunct Zoological Gardens on Groot Schuur Estate below Devil's Peak in 1935. As of 2006, virtually all tahrs have been culled from Table Mountain, thus clearing the way for the re-introduction of the smaller klipspringer, with which the tahr would have competed due to similar niches [4]. However it is still highly likely that a few survived.

Chacma Baboons inhabit the southern parts of the park. They are highly visible and popular with tourists, but are capable of becoming extremely dangerous when they become accustomed to human beings and start to associate them with free food. Many residents who live in places close to the park, such as Da Gama Park, Tokai and Scarborough, often clash with baboons which have attempted, and succeeded, in raiding their houses for food and many resort to measures such as reinforcing their security by erecting electric fences, and illegal measures like shooting them with pellet guns, running them over, and setting dogs on them [5][6]. This is ineffective as it can maim the baboons and simply re-inforce their perchant for gaining easy food, as it is easier for baboons to raid a dustbin for scraps rather than forage in the mountains with only one hand [7]. Thus it is imperative that visitors to the park do not feed the baboons at all.

[edit] Tourist attractions

[edit] Controversy

The Table Mountain National Park has been criticized for removing the urban forests consisting of non-indigenous trees. These forests only make up 2% of the park, but are important recreational areas for people in living Cape Town Metropolitan area.[1][2]

The Park lies in the heart of the Cape Floral Kingdom, which is a bio-diversity hot spot and seen by botanists as a botanical anomaly[8]. Much of this unique flora has been lost to agriculture and urban development.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://protea.worldonline.co.za/silver.htm
  2. ^ http://www.search-capetown.com/attractions/table-mountain-fauna.php
  3. ^ http://www.sanparks.org/parks/table_mountain/conservation/fauna.php#mammals
  4. ^ http://www.panda.org.za/print.php?id=314
  5. ^ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061004-baboons.html
  6. ^ http://allafrica.com/stories/200907220796.html
  7. ^ http://www.baboonmatters.org.za/baboons.html
  8. ^ Field Guide to Fynbos, John Manning, 2007. ISBN9781770072657

[edit] External links

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South African National Parks
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