Bale Mountains National Park
Bale Mountains National Park is a national park in Ethiopia. The park encompasses an area of approximately in the Bale Mountains and Sanetti Plateau of the Ethiopian Highlands.
The park's Afromontane habitats have one of the highest incidences of animal endemicity of any terrestrial habitat in the world. The park was nominated to the World Heritage Tentative List in 2009.
Geography
Bale Mountains National Park is located in southeastern Ethiopia, southeast of Addis Ababa and east of Shashamene in the Oromia Region.Climate
Temperatures vary widely throughout BMNP: on the plateau, daytime temperatures are usually around 10 °C with strong winds; in the Gaysay Valley average daytime temperatures are around 20 °C, and the Harenna Forest is around 25 °C. However, the weather changes frequently and sometimes drastically. In elevations over 3,000 meters, night frosts are common. The rainy season is from May until November.Flora
The forests of the Bale Mountains are important for genetic stocks of wild forest coffee and for medicinal plants in Ethiopia. Three medicinal plant hotspots have been identified: two in the Gaysay area and one in the Angesu area, spanning the park boundary. The female flowers of hagenia contain anthelmintic, which is used to treat tapeworms among the local populations.Fauna
Mammals
Mammal species in the Bale Mountains National Park include Ethiopian wolf, Mountain nyala, big-headed African mole-rat, Menelik's bushbuck, common duiker, klipspringer, Bohor reedbuck, Ethiopian highland hare, honey badger, warthog, spotted hyena, serval, and the Bale Mountains vervet.Other mammals of Bale Mountains National Park located in Harenna forest include the African golden wolf, Giant forest hog, Mantled guereza, lion, African leopard, and African wild dog. Almost one-third of the 47 mammals that live in BMNP are rodents. The rodent community, particularly of the Afro-alpine plateau are keystone species in the Bale Mountains National Park.
Avifauna
The Bale Mountains are home to over 282 species of birds, including nine of the 16 species endemic to Ethiopia. Furthermore, over 170 migratory birds have been recorded within the park. Bale Mountains National Park is home to almost every highland Abyssinian and Ethiopian endemic.With over 863 species of birds recorded, representing approximately 9.5% of the world's bird diversity and 39% of the bird species in Africa, Ethiopia is often considered one of the most avifaunal-rich countries in Africa. Sixteen of Bale's bird species are endemic to Ethiopia, including blue-winged goose, spot-breasted lapwing, yellow-fronted parrot, Abyssinian longclaw, Abyssinian catbird, Bale parisoma, Ethiopian siskin, fawn-breasted waxbill, and the Abyssinian owl.
Herpetofauna
Ethiopian rare endemic reptiles that are newly discovered in the Bale Mountains forested areas include Ethiopian House snake, Ethiopian mountain adder, Bale two-horned chameleon, Harenna hornless chameleon, Beardless Ethiopian montane chameleon, and Wolfgang Böhme's Ethiopian Chameleon.At least seven species of endemic Amphibians have been discovered in forested swampy areas and Bale Mountains National park plateaus. Ethiopian burrowing tree frog, Erlanger's Grassland frog and Neumann's Grassland frog are commonly rare within these habitats. However, other amphibians species lives within the areas of Bale Mountains such as Bale Mountain Frog, Ethiopian banana frog, Ragazzi's tree frog, Kouni Valley striped frog, Malcolm's Ethiopian toad, Osgood's Ethiopian toad, and Bale Mountains tree frog are considered to be endangered because of habitat loss and deforestation.