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Site description (2001 baseline)

Key biodiversity
See Box and Table 3 for key species. The avifauna is virtually unstudied and the total species list for the park is likely to be higher than the 182 species that have been collected on the margins of the park. The importance of the site is in the relatively high species-richness of Zambezian woodland species (one species of the Kalahari–Highveld biome has also been recorded) and in the wetland habitats along the Calongo and Cuvelai rivers, where the globally threatened Grus carunculatus is frequent and probably breeds. The small lakes provide extensive areas for aquatic birds and these areas, together with flood-plains, support at least 31 species of waterbird (21% of Angolan list), some in numbers which are at least nationally significant. There may be regular movements of waterbirds between southern Angola and wetlands further south. The park is one of the few places in Angola where three similar-sized glossy starlings overlap—Lamprotornis nitens occurs in fine-leaved and broadleaved woodlands, L. chalybaeus occurs in miombo and other broadleaved woodlands, and L. acuticaudus occurs in miombo woodland.

Non-bird biodiversity: The park was established as a reserve in 1938 to protect a population of the mammal Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis, and was raised to National Park status in 1964, but by the early 1970s the resident giraffe population had apparently been exterminated (Huntley 1974a). Large herbivores present in the park include Aepyceros melampus petersi (Huntley 1974a), and carnivores include Panthera leo (VU) (Cabral 1987; Cabral and Simões 1988). Bats collected in the general area include Epomophorus angolensis (LR/nt) (Cabral 1989).

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Mupa National Park (Angola). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/mupa-national-park-iba-angola on 26/11/2024.