Mount Mabu

Mount Mabu
Highest point
Elevation1,700 m (5,600 ft)
Coordinates16°17′52″S 36°23′39″E / 16.29778°S 36.39417°E / -16.29778; 36.39417
Naming
Language of namePortuguese
Geography
Mount Mabu
Location of Mount Mabu in Mozambique
LocationMozambique

Mount Mabu is a mountain in northern Mozambique, famous for its old-growth rain forest. Mount Mabu is approximately 1,700 metres (5,600 feet) high and the forest covers about 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres; 27 square miles). While well-known locally, the Mount Mabu forest and its extremely diverse flora and fauna were virtually unknown to science until 2005, when the location was finally visited by a team of researchers from the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT), along with several ornithologists, and, in 2008, by scientists from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. The scientific expeditions were only made possible by finding the mountain's location on Google Earth's satellite-view, looking for potentially unknown wildlife hotspots in Africa. Thus, Mount Mabu is frequently referred to as the "Google Forest". It forms part of a proposed ecoregion, to be called the "Southeast Africa Montane Archipelago" (SEAMA).