The spectacular Table Mountain National Park is known for its extraordinarily rich, diverse and unique flora, containing the world's Sixth Floral Kingdom, named fynbos.
Previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, Table Mountain National Park covers several reserves such as the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, Table Mountain Nature Reserve and Silvermine Nature Reserve, plus the Boulders beach penguin colony. The coastal waters surrounding the Cape Peninsula are proclaimed as a marine protected area: the Agulhas Bioregion and the South-western Cape Bioregion. The boundary is at Cape Point.
The Cape Peninsula has an unusually rich biodiversity which forms part of the Cape Floral Region protected areas. These protected areas are a World Heritage Site, and an estimated 2,200 species of plants are confined to Table Mountain range; many of these species, including many types of proteas, are endemic to these mountains and can be found nowhere else. Its vegetation consists predominantly of several different types of the unique and rich Cape fynbos, including some critically endangered species.
Wildlife is diverse and prolific in the area. The most common mammal on the mountains is the dassie or rock hyrax, and Table Mountain is also home to porcupines, mongooses, snakes, lizards, tortoises, and a rare endemic species of amphibian that is only found here: the Table Mountain ghost frog. The mountain cliffs are home to several raptors species: the charismatic Verreaux's eagle, jackal buzzard, booted eagle (in summer), African harrier-hawk, peregrine falcon and rock kestrel.
Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve is home to the beautiful brown and white bontebok antelopes, tortoises, ostriches, and southern right whales roam the sea around the Peninsula from August to October to mate and calve. Boulders Beach is known for its growing colony of the vulnerable African penguins, which can easily be viewed at close quarters from a boardwalk.
A large population of baboons lives in the Peninsula, and a dozen troops, varying in size from seven to over 100 individuals, wander on the mountains from the Constantiaberg to Cape Point.
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