Some interesting facts and amazing natural phenomena occurring here.
- South Africa has a coastline of 2 954 km (almost 1 800 miles).
- South Africa is as large as Texas and California combined, or larger than Germany, France and Italy combined.
- South Africa is home to more mammals than North and South America combined.
- South Africa is home to:
- The largest land mammal (the African elephant)
- The tallest creature (the giraffe)
- The fastest mammal (the cheetah)
- The largest reptile (the leatherback turtle)
- The largest antelope (the eland)
- The largest bird (the ostrich)
- The heaviest flying bird (the Kori bustard)
- South Africa has more than 900 bird species: 10% of the planet’s selection on only 1% of its land surface.
- South Africa has 23 200 different plants of which nearly 19 000 are endemic, making it the richest region in the world in terms of species to area -- 1.7 times richer even than Brazil.
- The Cape Floral Kingdom within the region is the tiniest in the world, but also the richest. It has 8 500 species -- 6 000 of them found nowhere else on earth. This area produces 300 varieties of Erica alone -- two-thirds of the world’s total.
- South Africa boasts seven of the around 800 world heritage sites.
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