Mount Rungwe

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Mount Rungwe, is a dormant volcano in the Mbeya region of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania; at an altitude of 2960m it is southern Tanzania's second highest peak. Rungwe stands at the junction of the eastern and western arms of the Great Rift Valley of Africa. It dominates the mountainous country at the north-west end of the trough that contains Lake Nyasa. The southeastern slopes of these mountains receive up to 3,000 mm of rainfall a year, the highest rainfall in Tanzania; the slopes are covered with a belt of tropical montane forest. Above the treeline, at about 2600 m, there is a belt of heathland. Much of the mountain was listed as a Forest Reserve as early as 1949.

The new genus of monkey, Rungwecebus kipunji, named for the mountain, was initially thought to be a type of mangabey from the genus Lophocebus, until more detailed genetic analysis showed its closer connection to baboons.

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