CONNECTIONS, DISJUNCTIONS AND ENDEMISM IN THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICAN MAMMAL FAUNAS

Abstract

SUMMARY The animals and plants of eastern and southern Africa exhibit patterns of distribution that are disjunct, continuous or restricted to just one of these two regions. Striking similarities between the distribution of animals and plants seem to have been strongly influenced by both the prevailing and historic climatic conditions. Over the last 1 500 years, however, the migration of pastoralists southwards with their domestic stock seems to have had a profound effect on the distribution of the major vegetation types, which may well have strongly influenced the ranges of both animal and plant species. 42% of the southern African sub-region mammal species are restricted to the region, 48% exhibit a continuous distribution, while 10% have disjunct distributions, being absent from the extensive Brachystegia-Mopane woodlands of central Africa. The arid regions of the south are marked by a radiation of the remarkable golden moles. The more primitive mammalian groups, such as the shrews and microchiropterans...