Table Mountain stands as a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town, South Africa. Its level plateau, steep cliffs, and rich biodiversity make it a significant tourist attraction and a natural wonder.
View of Table Mountain and Cape Town seen from Bloubergstrand.
Geological Structure
The upper portion of Table Mountain consists of 450- to 510-million-year-old rocks from the Cape Fold Mountains. The uppermost layer is hard quartzitic sandstone, known as "Table Mountain Sandstone" (TMS), which forms steep grey crags. Below this is the "Graafwater Formation," consisting of maroon-colored mudstones. These rocks rest on the basement of Cape Granite.
Geological structure of Table Mountain.
The mountain's table-top flatness is due to it being a syncline mountain, once the floor of a valley. The weathered granite soil of the lower slopes is more fertile than the nutrient-poor soils derived from TMS.
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Biodiversity
Table Mountain and the Back Table have an unusually rich biodiversity, consisting predominantly of Cape fynbos. An estimated 2,285 species of plants are confined to Table Mountain and the Cape Peninsula range, many of which are endemic. Of these, 1,500 occur in the 57 km2 area comprising Table Mountain and the Back Table.
Fynbos vegetation on Table Mountain.
The Disa uniflora is common in wet areas on Table Mountain and the Back Table. Remnant patches of indigenous forest persist in the wetter ravines, though much of the original forest was felled by early settlers.
Fynbos is a fire-adapted vegetation, and regular fires are important for its diversity. The plants that make up fynbos have been subjected to various fire regimes over a long period. Intervals of 10-15 years between fires promote the proliferation of larger Protea species.
Fauna
The most common mammal on the mountain was the dassie, or rock hyrax, but their numbers plummeted between 2000 and 2004. Table Mountain is also home to porcupines, mongooses, snakes, lizards, tortoises, and the Table Mountain ghost frog.
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Leopards persisted on the mountains until the 1920s, and smaller carnivores like the rooikat and vaalboskat were once common. The mountain cliffs are home to several raptor species, including the jackal buzzard, booted eagle, and peregrine falcon.
Up until the late 1990s, baboons lived on all the mountains of the Peninsula, including the Back Table. Himalayan tahrs, descendants of escaped zoo animals, used to be common but were almost eradicated to make way for indigenous klipspringers.
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Table Mountain National Park
Arguments for a national park on the Cape Peninsula began in the mid-1930s. The Cape Peninsula National Park was proclaimed in 1998. The park is not a single contiguous area but consists of undeveloped mountainous areas separated by urban areas.
Map showing the Cape Peninsula, illustrating the positions of the Cape Town City Bowl, nestled between Table Mountain, Lion's Head, Devil's Peak and Table Bay.
The park includes areas such as the Table Mountain National Monument, Cecilia Park, Newlands Forest, Constantiaberg, Steenberg Peak, the Kalk Bay mountains, Cape Point, and the Cape of Good Hope.
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The Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area is an inshore marine protected area around the Cape Peninsula. The MPA is mainly a controlled zone where extractive activities are allowed under permit, with six small no-take zones.
Conservation Challenges
The Table Mountain range has the highest concentration of threatened species of any continental area of equivalent size in the world. Invasive alien plants, such as the cluster pine, pose a significant threat. SANParks has been criticised for its program of removing invasive non-indigenous trees.
Indigenous plants are also threatened by harvesting for traditional medicines. Larger predators that historically roamed the area include the Cape lion and leopard.
Table Mountain Flora and Fauna
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Plants | Protea species, Erica species, Restio species, Asteraceae species, Geophytes, Fynbos |
| Mammals | Dassie (Rock Hyrax), Porcupines, Mongooses, Baboons |
| Reptiles | Snakes, Lizards, Tortoises |
| Amphibians | Table Mountain Ghost Frog |
| Birds | Jackal Buzzard, Booted Eagle, African Harrier-Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Rock Kestrel, African Fish Eagle |
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