Habitat:
Ecologically, southern Africa is made of a complex of mosaic of different vegetation types. One of them is Mesic savannah, this covers the eastern regions of higher rainfall and warmer winters. As thee Indian Ocean belt, it extends as a narrow strip along the eaast coast as far south as Port Elizabeth. Here the warm Mozambique Current causes high moisture and warm weather; mean annual temperatures range from 26°C in the Zambezi Valley to 17°C at Port Elizabeth, and frost is absent. In the north, the belt, t extends 240 km inland across the sandy soil of the Mozambique Plain, and comprises rich Brachystegia woodland ( now replaced with secondary wooded grassland and cultivation ), with patches of mangrove and swamp forest along the coast. The vegetation is a mosaic of succulent and moist thicket, which may be dense and impenetrable. A secondary belt of more open Brachystegia woodland covers much of the Zimbabwe plateau.
Dry lowveld, particularly mopane savannah. The rain that falls in during the year, 90% is falling in october - march, and it falls more than 500mm pa.
Climate:
Southern Africa has a mainly temperate climate, with all season contrasts in rainfall and temperature. The rainfall is stronglly influenced by the cold Atlantic Ocean (Benguela) and warm Indian Ocean (Agulhas) current that sweep up and down the west and east coast respectively. The annual rainfall increases considerably in the north and east, whereas the west coast and adjacent regions are thr driest parts. Rainfall is largely dependent on the prevailing winds, which in summer sweep anticlockwise across the continent, carrying moist air in the form of thiúnderstorms from the Indian Ocean across the eastern regions. Because of the high altitude of the interior, little rain remains to fall in the west. In winter, the winds bring rain to the west coast, whereas the rest of the country is dry.
The temperature is affected by both the position ( between 17° S and nearly 35°S) and the high altitude ( 1000 - 2000 m)of much of the interior. The cold Atlantic sea current sweeping up the west coast keeps the air temperatures cool, and causes local fogs that sweep across the Namib Desert, and on which many of the region’s reptiles depend for their water. Summer temperatures are highest in the Kalahari and surrounding regions, becoming less intense with altitude on the highveld of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the Zimbabwean and Namibian plateaus. Coolest areas at this time are the high mountains of the eastern escarpment and the south-western Cape. Winters are mild along the east coast ( the Mozambique Plain and adjacent lowveld of the eastern transvaal, and the Limpopo and Zambezi river valleys). The coldest winter regions are the highvelt and the mountains of the Great Escarpment, which regularly have night frosts and where (with the exception of the Namibian escarpment) heavy snowfalls are frequent. The rest of the region has warm, sometimes pleasantly sunny, winter days with cool, occasionally cold, nights.
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