Mkhambathi Nature Reserve

Mkhambathi Nature Reserve (or Mkambati Nature Reserve) is a protected area at Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is 7720 ha, with the Pondoland Marine Protected Area off its coastal edge. The reserve is located in the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism and the greater Maputaland–Pondoland–Albany Hotspot, and is covered in open grassland, dotted with patches of indigenous forest, swamp forests and flanked by the forested ravines of the Msikaba and Mtentu rivers.

Amphibians
Amphibians occur in the coastal region of the reserve.


 * Bush squeaker
 * Forest tree frog
 * Knysna leaf-folding frog
 * Natal chirping frog
 * Plaintive rain frog
 * Yellow-striped reed frog

Birds
The reserve has a large colony (400–800 individuals) of Cape vulture (a threatened species).


 * African finfoot
 * African grass owl
 * Black-bellied bustard
 * Black-bellied starling
 * Black-rumped buttonquail
 * Black-winged lapwing
 * Broad-tailed warbler
 * Brown scrub robin
 * Buff-streaked chat
 * Cape cormorant
 * Cape vulture
 * Chorister robin-chat
 * Corn crake
 * Crowned eagle
 * Denham's bustard
 * Grey crowned crane
 * Grey sunbird
 * Gurney's sugarbird
 * Half-collared kingfisher
 * Knysna woodpecker
 * Olive sunbird
 * Southern ground hornbill
 * Spotted ground thrush
 * Striped flufftail
 * Swamp nightjar
 * White-backed night heron

Mammals

 * Chacma baboon
 * Black-backed jackal
 * Bushbuck
 * Eland
 * Southern reedbuck
 * Common duiker
 * Zulu golden mole
 * Forest shrew
 * Least dwarf shrew

Reptiles

 * Natal black snake


 * Southern brown egg eater
 * Variable legless skink

Vegetation
There is an abundance of endemic plants found in the Pondoland landscape of the reserve, including the endemic false water-berry, Rhynchocalyx lawsonioides. The Pondo palm is only found in this region, growing along the banks of the Msikaba and Mtentu rivers. Gurney's sugarbird can be found in protea bushes. Broad-tailed warblers can be found in marshland.

Threats
The endemic plants in the reserve face threats from fire as a consequence of poaching game, and of pervading invasive alien plants like:


 * Black wattle
 * Guava
 * Tickberry
 * Triffid weed