Mkhambathi Nature Reserve (or Mkambati Nature Reserve) is a protected area at Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is , 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. The Reserve was listed as a protected Ramsar site in 2025.

Biodiversity

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 Source: 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

Gallery

References