Cangandala National Park is a national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 in Malanje Province, Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

. It is situated between the Cuije river and 2 unnamed territories of the Cuanza

Cuanza River

The Cuanza River is a river in Angola. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean just south of the nation's capital, Luanda....

, with the towns of Culamagia and Techongolola on the edges of the park. It is the smallest national park in Angola.

History

The park was created in 1963 while Angola was a territory under Portuguese rule. It was declared a national park on 25 June 1970. Cangandala was originally founded to protect the Giant Sable Antelope

Giant Sable Antelope

The Giant Sable Antelope, Hippotragus niger variani, also known in Portuguese as the Palanca Negra Gigante, is a large, rare subspecies of Sable Antelope native and endemic to the region between Cuango and Luando Rivers in Angola....

which were discovered in 1963.

Description

The park, which covers an area of 600 km², consists of undulating sandlime hills with lowerlying drainage lines. The area receives about 1 350 mm rainfall per year with an average temperature of 21,5 °C. No perennial rivers occur and drainage takes place via grass covered waterlanes. A mosaic of open miombo bushveld and savanna occur. Brachystegia-bushveld are found on the water partitions and open grasslands in the lower-lying drainage lanes.

External links

• Birdlife.org profile of Cangandala National Park

9.8°N 16.75°W