Every year the Kafue River, one of the main tributaries of the Zambezi River in Zambia, floods a broad level area, the Kafue Flats, to a depth of up to 5 m for several months. The flats are 235 km long and up to 40 km wide. The life of the flats is conditioned primarily by the alternating rainy and dry seasons and by the floods. About 80 cm of rain falls from November to April. The Kafue rises slowly during the rains, is highest in May, and falls during the latter part of the dry season. Vegetation is composed primarily of grasses, especially Oryza barthii. Because of the abundant water the primary productivity of the flats is much greater than that of the surrounding woodlands. Secondary productivity also is high. Every year there is an alternation of aquatic and terrestrial faunas. During the floods fish move onto the flats from the Kafue, and most spawning takes place there. Terrestrial species are driven off, but as the floods recede they reoccupy the flood plain and use what is by far the best grazing in the region. Large mammals find shelter in tall stands of grass, small mammals in the thick mat of vegetation that covers much of the ground or in the deeply cracked soil. There is a gradient in use of the flood plain: some species (hippopotamus, otter) always stay near the river at low water, others (lechwe, zebra, wildebeest) go for varying distances onto it, and more than half of the mammals (kudu, squirrel, vervet, aardvark) go onto it little if at all. Failure to use the flood plain seems to be due to absence of suitable habitats or food, rather than exclusion by the floods. The most abundant large mammal on the flood plain is the lechwe, the only terrestrial ungulate that sometimes feeds in the floodwaters. Several shrews and mice, especially Mastomys natalensis, are common on the food plain and breed there during the rains. During the floods they leave the flood plain or take refuge on natural levees along the Kafue. Large populations of water birds are common. Crocodile and monitor live near the water's edge and move in and out with the floods like the hippopotamus. Some snakes are common on the flats, but turtles and frogs are not. Although ants and termites are abundant in the surrounding region, they are largely excluded from the flats by the floods.

Patterns of Use of a Flood Plain by Zambian Mammals

The paleoecology of the Upper Laetolil Beds at Laetoli

The evolutionary history and taxonomy of the Kobus leche species complex of South-Central Africa in the context of palaeo-drainage dynamics

Thirty-five museum specimens collected in 1926 and 1947–48 vouch for the distinctiveness of an undescribed large mammal, a form of lechwe antelope. Their preservation has allowed comparative analyses of morphological characters to reveal this new species, the Upemba lechwe Kobus anselli sp. nov. It is most similar to the black lechwe K. smithemani and quite distinct from all other known taxa, including topotypical red lechwes K. leche. Prevailing threats and conservation concerns underwrite its formal description after neglect by science for decades. This lechwe is restricted to the Upemba wetlands, Kamalondo depression, south-east Congo basin (Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo), and has declined greatly since the 1970s. Commercial poaching through the 1980s reduced c. 20000 individuals to under 1000 estimated today. Recognition of K. anselli as a distinct evolutionary entity was previously ignored, because the entrenched taxonomy assumed it was just another red lechwe. Its speciation seems to be recent, probably Pleistocene. Lechwes evolved in an archipelago of wetlands formed through vicariance of a more extensive drainage system, the Palaeo-Chambeshi, which extended from Katanga and north-east Zambia across the south-central African plateau, into the Kalahari basin. The Palaeo-Chambeshi was a major endoreic tributary of Palaeo-Lake Makgadikgadi. Its fragmentation isolated lechwes in the Kamalondo depression from wetlands in the Upper Zambezi–Okavango, Upper Kafue, and the Chambeshi and Luapula drainages. The belated discovery of K. anselli emphasizes the region's conservation significance. Because of its high species richness and high endemism, Katanga is a biodiversity hotspot within the encompassing Katanga–Chambeshi region, also covering eastern Angola and much of Zambia. A secure future for the critically endangered Upemba lechwe hinges on reducing adverse human impact and maintaining the integrity of its wetland habitat. Support for protected areas is critical. Maintenance of ecological processes, focused on aquatic systems, is especially important to conserve biodiversity. Recognition of the complex evolutionary history of the region (since the Late Neogene) underpins the scientific foundation for all conservation plans and activities. It prescribes why a regional conservation strategy should encompass the landscape mosaic, structured across neighbouring drainage systems (Lufira, Upper Lualaba and Chambeshi–Luapula rivers). A trans-frontier conservation area will consolidate the protected areas and land use systems of the region in an ecological context.

The Upemba lechwe, Kobus anselli: an antelope new to science emphasizes the conservation importance of Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo

The Kafue lechwe (Kobus leche kafuensis) exhibits lekking behavior in which a number of males occupy small territories clustered together in discrete areas where females go for mating. Similar behavior in antelope is known only in the Uganda kob (Kobus kob thomasi). Lechwe lekking occurs only during a main rutting season although some breeding occurs throughout the year.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/192/4245/1240.full.pdf

Lekking behavior in kafue lechwe.

Most of the information in this article refers to the south bank of the Kafue Flats, though much will doubtless be applicable to other areas where lechwe occur. Ansell (1955) refers to the lechwe on the Kafue Flats as “red lechwe”, and it has indeed been customary to apply this term to all lechwe in Northern Rhodesia, except those found on the plains around Lake Bangweulu and in the Chinsali District. The adult males of these latter have specially extensive black colouration, and have been called “black lechwe” (K. l. smithemani). But Ansell (1960) points out that the lechwe of the Kafue Flats are not the same as “red lechwe” from elsewhere, and has still more recently suggested (in litt., 27th August 1960) that the relic population in the Balovale District west of the Zambesi, is not identical with that of the Busanga Swamp. The possible differences in these populations would appear to be in the length and sweep of the horns, and in the extent of black markings on the forelegs of adult males. In this article we refer to all Northern Rhodesian lechwe populations without epithet.

/pdf/the-problem-of-the-lechwe-kobus-leche-on-the-kafue-flats-5el4liatat.pdf

The Problem of the Lechwe (Kobus leche) on the Kafue Flats

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The Problem of the Lechwe (Kobus leche) on the Kafue Flats