...bout 300 to 510 mm about 12 to 20 in, has a thinner grass covering and a scattering of succulent or semisucculent trees. The subdesert scrub zone, ith an annual rainfall of 130 to 300 mm 5 to 12 in, has a covering of grasses and scattered lo shrubs. The zone of desert vegetation, found in areas ith an annual rainfall of less than 130 mm less than 5 in, has sparse vegetation or none at all.Animal Life Africa has to distinct zones of animal life the North and Northestern zone, including the Sahara and the Ethiopian zone, including all of sub-Saharan Africa. The North and Northestern zone is characterized by animals similar to those of Eurasia. Sheep, goats, horses, and camels are common. Barbary sheep, African red deer, and to types of ibex are native to the northern African coast. Desert foxes are found in the Sahara along ith hares, gazelles, and the jerboa, a small leaping rodent. The Ethiopian zone is famous for its great variety of distinctive animals and birds. oodland and grassland areas are inhabited by numerous species of antelope and deer, zebra, giraffe, buffalo, the African elephant, rhinoceros, and the baboon and various monkeys. Carnivores, or meat-eating animals, include the lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, jackal, and mongoose. The gorilla, the largest ape in the orld, inhabits the rain forests of equatorial Africa, as do monkeys, flying squirrels, bats and lemurs.Most bird life belongs to Eurasian groups. The guinea fol is a leading game bird. ater birds, notably pelicans, goliath herons, flamingos, storks, and egrets, congregate in great numbers. The ibis is common in the Nile region, and the ostrich is found in eastern and southern Africa. Reptiles are mainly of Eurasian origin and include lizards, crocodiles, and tortoises. A variety of venomous snakes, including the mamba, are encountered throughout the Ethiopian zone. Among the constricting snakes, pythons are found mainly in estern Africa boa constrictors are indigenous only to Madagascar. Freshater fish abound, ith more than 2000 species knon. The continent has a variety of destructive insects, notably mosquitoes, driver ants, termites, locusts, and tsetse flies. The last named transmit sleeping sickness to humans and animals in animals, the disease is called nagana.Mineral Resources Africa is very rich in mineral resources, possessing most of the knon mineral types of the orld, many of hich are found in significant quantities, although the geographic distribution is uneven. Fossil fuels are abundant, including major deposits of coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Africa has some of the orlds largest reserves of gold, diamonds, copper, bauxite, manganese, nickel, platinum, cobalt, radium, germanium, lithium, titanium, and phosphates. Other important mineral resources include iron ore, chromium, tin, zinc, lead, thorium, zirconium, vanadium, antimony, and beryllium. Also found in exploitable quantities are clays, mica, sulfur, salt, natron, graphite, limestone, and gypsum.Agriculture Despite the expansion of commerce and industry and the importance of these activities to the economy, most Africans remain farmers and herders. In northern and northestern Africa, heat, oats, corn, and barley are the important grain crops. Dates, olives, and citrus fruit are the main tree crops a variety of vegetables are gron. Goats and sheep are the most significant livestock raised. In the Sahara region, nomadic herders raise camels, and a fe farmers situated in oases gro dates and grains. South of the Sahara, shifting agriculturea method in hich small areas ere burned, cleared, and planted and then alloed to revert to bushhas given ay in most areas to settled farming. Grain is the main crop outside the rain forests rice, yams, cassava, okra, plantains, and bananas are raised for food. Cattle cannot be raised in tsetse fly-infested areas, hich cover more than one-third of the continent. Outside tsetse fly areas and dense forests, cattle are raised in large numbers, primarily for beef. Dairy farming is limited, located mainly around urban centers in eastern and southern Africa.Although some 60 percent of all cultivated land is in subsistence agriculture, commercial or cash-crop farming is common in all parts of the continent. Foodstuffs are gron for local urban markets, but coffee, cotton, cacao cocoa beans, peanuts, palm oil, and tobacco are gron by Africans for export. For certain agricultural exports, such as cacao cocoa beans, peanuts, cloves, and sisal, Africa produces more than one-half of the orld supply. European-oned plantations and farms, found mainly in eastern and southern Africa, concentrate on citrus, tobacco, and other export foodstuffs.Forestry and Fishing Although about one-quarter of Africa is covered by forest, much of the timber has little value except as local fuel. Gabon is a major producer of okoume, a ood used in making plyood Cte dIvoire, Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria are major exporters of hardoods. Inland fishing is concentrated in the Great Rift Valley lakes and in the increasing numbers of fish farms. Ocean fishing is idespread for local consumption it is commercially important off Morocco, Namibia, and South Africa.Mining Mineral extraction provides the bulk of African export earnings, and extractive industries are the most developed sectors in most African economies. Approximately one-half of Africas mineral income comes from South Africa much of this is derived from gold and diamond mining. The other leading mineral-producing countries are Libya petroleum, Nigeria petroleum, natural gas, coal, tin, Algeria petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, and Zambia copper, cobalt, coal, lead, zinc. Petroleum is also found along the estern African coast, in the Gabon Basin, the Republic of the Congo, the DRC, and Angola. Large quantities of uranium are also mined, chiefly in South Africa, Niger, the DRC, the Central African Republic, and Gabon. The largest radium supply in the orld is located in the DRC. Some 20 percent of the orld copper reserve is concentrated in Zambia, the DRC, South Africa, and Zimbabe. The DRC also possesses about 90 percent of the orlds knon cobalt, and Sierra Leone has the largest knon titanium reserves. Africa produces some three-quarters of the orlds gold South Africa, folloed by Zimbabe, the DRC, and Ghana, are the major producers. The mines of South Africa and the DRC produce virtually the entire orld supply of gem and industrial diamonds. Iron ore is found in all parts of the continent. Most of Africas mineral ealth has been and is being developed by large, multinational concerns. Increasingly, in recent years, African governments have become substantial shareholders in the operations ithin their on countries.Manufacturing Stemming from mineral and petroleum extraction are processing industries, such as refining and smelting, hich are located in most mineral-rich countries ith adequate energy. The bulk of Africas manufacturing takes place in South Africa. Heavy industry, such ...
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