Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

Description

Termites belong to an ancient insect order dating back more than 180 million years. Growing only 4 to 15 mm long, these small insects recycle wood and plant fibers, using detritus that other animals discard. An area with termite activity results in improvements to soil composition and fertility because compacted and encrusted soils cannot absorb water and can no longer support plant life.  Gorongosa National Park’s termites are constantly aerating the soil, helping plants and wildlife across the entire ecosystem.

Termites range in color from white to tan or black.  They have a head, thorax, abdomen, and six legs.  Termites are social insects that live in colonies.  A variety of different individuals (called castes) live together in the colony that can number from several hundred to several million individuals.  The largest individual is the queen.  Her job is to lay eggs, hundreds of thousands per day, totaling more than tens of millions over her lifetime.  A king is always by her side. Other members of the colony include soldiers that have a large head with powerful jaws or a bulb-like head that squirts liquid for protection.  Workers make up the majority of the termites in the colony—spending long hours working for the queen by building and maintaining the nest, gathering food, and feeding larvae.  Unique among social insects, termite workers can be male or female. The colony also includes nymphs (semi-mature young that become future kings and queens) and reproductive individuals of both genders.

Termites build nests to house their colonies in growing trees, inside fallen trees, underground, and in above ground mounds which they construct.  In Gorongosa National Park, the mounds can be 2–3 meters high. The shape ranges from somewhat amorphous domes or cones usually covered in grass and/or woody shrubs to sculptured hard earth mounds, or a mixture of the two.

Termite mounds are very organized green houses where the termites grow different types of macrofungi.  Usually, one species of termite has a symbiotic relationship with one species of fungus.   As a result, the family of macrofungi, Termitomyces, has evolved.  Many of the macrofungi are edible and some form large mushrooms that are collected and sold along the side of the Park’s roads during the rainy season. 

How to See

In tropical habitats like Gorongosa National Park, termites and the large mounds they build out of dirt are very conspicuous.  They especially dominate the woodland area of the park. While driving in the park’s game drive network, look out for termite mounds as you pass through a large tract of woodland toward the Urema floodplain.

Status

Africa: Common
Mozambique: Common
Gorongosa: Common

Conservation

Larger termite mounds provide habitat for plants and animals during the rainy season, creating a retreat above the water for smaller animals and birds.  They are also a growing medium for woody shrubs with root systems that cannot withstand inundation for weeks at a time. Scorpions, lizards, snakes, small mammals, and birds live in abandoned or weathered mounds, and aardvarks dig substantial caves and burrows in them, which then become homes for larger animals such as hyenas and mongooses. 

The role of termites in hollowing timbers and providing shelter for other creatures is critical for the survival of a large number of timber-inhabiting species.   The termite population and their mounds are very healthy in the Park.