The Virunga Mountains separate the basins of the Nile and the Congo rivers and are the only East African mountains to form a divide of continental stature. The entire system of the Ruwenzori Range drains into the Semliki River, a tributary of the Nile. Because they are relatively young, the mountain systems present good examples of consequent drainage (that is, determined by the initial slope of the land) such as the radial system of Mount Elgon, in which streams radiate from a central area, and the parallel streams of the Aberdare dip slopes. The porous nature of volcanic materials often results in areas devoid of surface drainage.

Soils

The succession of soils is from the raw mineral type of the summit area, through the dark peaty loams of the Afro-Alpine zone and the strong brown loams of high organic content in the forest belt, to the ferruginous (iron-bearing) soils of the lower slopes. Volcanic material presents a range from the unaltered rock of the most recent eruptions to the well-developed fertile soils on surfaces that have been exposed for longer periods of time.

Climate

In a region of predominantly dry climate, the mountains are conspicuous as areas of high rainfall. Affected by the convergence of Indian Ocean and Atlantic airstreams, the Ruwenzori as a whole comprise the wettest and the cloudiest of the mountains, where moist conditions penetrate up to the peaks and about 80 inches (2,000 mm) of rain annually falls at 15,000 feet. Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and Mount Elgon are affected by their position in relation to southeasterly and northeasterly airstreams. Below 10,000 feet they are wettest on their southeastern and southern sides, with annual total precipitation rising to 100 inches on Mount Kenya; they are driest on their northern flanks, with less than 40 inches of rainfall yearly. Rainfall decreases above a cloud ceiling at about 10,000 feet, especially on Kilimanjaro, where the Afro-Alpine zone is a veritable desert. On the western and southwestern slopes the diverted southeast trade winds are sucked up each of the mountains as westerlies, creating an increase of cloud and precipitation. At the summit of Mount Kenya, temperatures seldom rise above the freezing point, and above 14,500 feet precipitation occurs mainly in the form of snow.

Plant life

Vegetation in the East African mountains often occurs in a succession of altitudinal zones. This succession is well developed on Mount Kenya, where it emerges from the surrounding savanna (grassland with scattered bushes or trees) and begins on the lower slopes with a crescent of cultivated land. The montane forest extends upward from a lower limit of about 6,000 feet to 10,000 feet and includes giant trees, such as camphor and various figs, cedar, yellowwood, and the East African olive. From about 8,000 feet the forest consists of montane bamboo, and at its upper limit parkland and low thicket fringe the succeeding zone of giant heather. At 11,000 to 12,000 feet the heather zone gives way to the Afro-Alpine zone in which tree groundsel and the giant lobelia rise out of a ground vegetation of tussocky grassland and everlastings (composite plants, the flowers of which can be dried without loss of colour or form). Mosses and lichens survive up to about 15,000 feet, but bare rock and ice are exposed above that height.

The montane forest of Kilimanjaro is drier than that of Mount Kenya. Bamboo is virtually absent, although it is abundant on neighbouring Mount Meru, and there is no parkland zone. The heather zone is strongly represented, whereas the Alpine semidesert is poor in flowering plants. Mount Elgon reaches into the Afro-Alpine zone, as do the summits of the Aberdare Range. On the northwest of the Ruwenzori, the lower slopes touch upon the equatorial forest, and the vegetation is moister and more luxuriant than that of the eastern mountains. Above the bamboo forest and the wooded parkland, the Virunga Mountains extend into the heather zone and, in the three highest volcanoes, into the Afro-Alpine zone.

The Afro-Alpine vegetation of the East African mountains is unique. With the increase of temperatures in post-Pleistocene times (since about 11,700 years ago), the cold-loving plants retreated to the mountains, where they have been preserved and somewhat transformed. Despite the enormous distances that separate the mountains, plants in the respective Afro-Alpine zones are closely comparable. There are lobelia and Alchemilla (lady’s mantle) species common to all the mountains, although the tree groundsel species are limited within neighbouring mountains. The phenomenon of giantism is common, while dwarfism occurs at the highest altitudes.

Animal life

Elephants, rhinoceroses, buffalo, antelope, hyrax, bush pigs, and monkeys, including the black-and-white colobus, are among the main inhabitants of the montane forest. The bongo (forest antelope) and the giant forest hog have not been observed on Kilimanjaro, perhaps because of its lack of bamboo forest and its isolation from the mountains to the north. Mountain gorillas and golden monkeys live in the Virunga Mountains, and chimpanzees in the Ruwenzori Range. Trout have been introduced into the streams of the more accessible mountains.

Mammals of the upper forests, including the leopard and antelope such as the duiker and the eland, penetrate into the moorland and Afro-Alpine zones, where the hyrax and the groove-toothed rat are the most obvious inhabitants. Birds include the lammergeier (one of the largest birds of prey, resembling the eagle and vulture), the mountain chat (a songbird), and the scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird (a small, brilliantly coloured songbird). Animal life, like the vegetation, shows resemblances that suggest a retreat of its distribution from the surrounding plateaus to the montane islands of refuge.