Karoo korhaan Karoo korhaan The karoo korhaan ("Eupodotis vigorsii"), also known as karoo bustard, is a species of bird in the bustard family, Otididae, from Southern Africa. The species is sometimes placed in the genus "Heterotetrax". It is the sister-species to Rüppell's korhaan, and the two species are sometimes considered conspecific (the same species). There are two subspecies, the nominate race, from south-eastern South Africa, and "E. v. namaqua" (Roberts, 1932), from north-eastern South Africa and southern Namibia. The karoo korhaan lives in a range of arid habitats associated with the karoo and other arid scrubland habitats found in eastern South Africa
Karoo plain with Mississippi-like rivers depositing mud from an immense range of mountains to the south. Ancient reptiles and amphibians prospered in the wet forests, and their remains have made the Karoo famous amongst palaeontologists. The first of these Karoo fossils was discovered in 1838 by Scots-born Andrew Geddes Bain at a road cutting near Fort Beaufort. He sent his specimens to the British Museum, where fellow Scotsman Robert Broom recognised the Karoo fossils' mammal-like characteristics in 1897. After the Beaufort period, Southern Africa (still part of Gondwana) became an arid sand desert with only ephemeral rivers and pans. These sands