Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve

Nkotakhota Wildlife Reserve, MW

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Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve (also known as Nkhotakota Game Reserve or Nkhotakota Wildlife Preserve), is the largest and oldest wildlife reserve in Malawi, near Nkhotakota. The park's hilly terrain features dambos and miombo woodlands as the dominant vegetation, which support a variety of mammal and bird species. Poaching has greatly reduced the number of elephants and other large mammals in Nkhotakota, but conservation efforts to restore the elephant population started when African Parks began managing the reserve in 2015. == Geography and topography == Nkhotakota is an 1,800-square-kilometre (700 square miles), wildlife reserve located near Lake Malawi, in the Great Rift Valley. It borders the Kasungu District, Mzimba District, Nkhotakota, and Ntchisi District.The reserve extends from the edge of the escarpment above the Great Rift Valley at 1,638 m (5,374 ft), down to the narrow plain beside Lake Malawi at 500 to 600 m (1,640 to 1,970 ft). The terrain is rugged and wild, with the rough slopes and ridges being much dissected by rivers and gorges. The land slopes from west to east, and is carved by three major rivers leading to Lake Malawi. == Flora and fauna == Nkhotakota features dambos (wetlands) and large areas of miombo woodland with Brachystegia trees and long grasses. There are some dense stands of forest alongside the rivers and a 44 hectares (110 acres) patch of mid-altitude rainforest below the escarpment.Poaching in recent decades reduced the elephant population from 1,500 to fewer than 100 in 2015. Other large mammals such as the common eland, the waterbuck, the southern reedbuck and the hippopotamus have also declined in numbers. SOURCESWikipedia