Mudumu National Park

Mudumu National Park
Mudumu National Park
Location	Namibia
Coordinates	18°6′S 23°36′E / 18.100°S 23.600°E / -18.100; 23.600Coordinates: 18°6′S 23°36′E / 18.100°S 23.600°E / -18.100; 23.600
Area	737 km2 (285 sq mi)
Established	1990

Mudumu is a National Park in Caprivi Region in north-eastern Namibia. The Park was established in 1990. It covers an area of 737 square kilometres (285 sq mi). Botswana borders it to the west and is surrounded by communal area conservancies. The Kwando River forms the western border with Botswana. Various communal area conservancies and community forests surround Mudumu National Park.

The area is an important migration route from Botswana to Angola for large game species such as African elephant. There is no boundary fence, and Mudumu forms a crucial trans-boundary link for wildlife migration between Angola, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. It is in the centre of Africa’s largest conservation area, the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (KaZa TFCA).

Mudumu National Park was created in 1990, shortly before Namibia's independence. Although the approved size of the park is 1,010 square kilometres (390 sq mi), the actual size is 737 square kilometres (285 sq mi).

Average annual rainfall is between 550 millimetres (22 in) and 700 millimetres (28 in) per year, with the peak rainy period arriving in January and February. In years of heavy rainfall, flooding can be extensive, although Mudumu is drier than her sister park, Nkasa Rupara.

The Park is situated approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Kongola, bordered by Botswana to the west, and various communal area conservancies. The entire park is flat, with no hills or mountains. A fossilized river course - the Mudumu Mulapo – lies in the centre of the park. This is a seasonally dry, open channel that drains the primarily Mopane woodlands of the hinterland to the east. There is no formal entrance gate and the park is unfenced. A graded track, called a cutline, separates the park from neighbouring communal farmland. C49 (D3511) road runs through the park linking the villages of Kongola and Sangwali.

Mudumu National Park is situated in the tree and shrub savannah biome. Vegetation types are north-eastern Kalahari woodlands, riverine woodlands and islands, Caprivi mopane woodland and Caprivi floodplains. The Kwando River floodplain, grasslands, riparian woodlands and dense mopane woodland shelter woodland fauna and flora.