Climbing Karoo koppies

Known for its endless plains and occasional hills, or koppies, the Karoo is an arid ecosystem inhabited by plants and animals adapted to unpredictable desert conditions.

- DR ALAN LEE

Among its cinnamon hues are hidden diverse habitats, each hosting a different set of species. Landscape features can be obvious: a dam will have South African Shelducks and Pied Avocets, trees around farmsteads will host Gabar Goshawks and Hadeda Ibises. But even the seemingly monotonous plains have tweaks in their composition of grass, rocks and bushes that make them favoured by nomadic granivores such as Grey-backed and Black-eared sparrow-larks or by Tractrac Chat and Sclater's Lark.

Koppies often, but not always, flat-topped can be seen from miles away and are important habitats for many species, providing refuges and breeding sites. They are also culturally significant to the indigenous people of the region, as borne out by engravings on the dolerite - boulders strewn at their tops. Although imposing from a distance, they are rarely more than 300 metres high and many of the more accessible ones have a pile of rocks, a beacon, a cross, even a hidden bible on top.