Why do we need to conserve?

The reserve and the surrounding area has been subject to extreme overgrazing in the past 150 years, primarily from increased density of domestic stock. The high pressure on the grass has meant less competition for the denser shrubs, which have flourished as they have had the opportunity to spring up all across the area almost unimpeded. This shift at the bottom end of the food chain has had far-reaching effects on the rest of the ecosystem. Due to the dense cover of bushes, it is impossible for the grass to come back on its own, so what we are doing here is creating the right conditions for the bush (called veld in South Africa) to heal itself.

Bush-Clearing and Re-Seeding

The bush (veld) here used to be much more open than it is today and we are re-creating the conditions for grasses to re-establish themselves as the dominant form of ground-cover. We have a team of people working on removing many of the bushes to allow light to penetrate to the ground again, and to reduce competition for water and nutrients. It is an enormous task but we have already made significant progress and the results are visible.

This is one of the biggest habitat rehabilitation projects of its kind, and we hope to be able to pass on the knowledge and experience we gain from it to other reserves who find themselves with similar habitat problems.

Game Management

As soon as people put up fences restricting the natural movement of game, it becomes essential to manage the populations, as their means to do so themselves has been removed. We are taking the approach that if you look after the habitat, the rest will follow, and so we have removed a significant number of animals from the property to allow the grass to recover. By doing so, we will ultimately be able to accommodate even larger populations than we started with once the vegetation is in a better state.

During the dry winter months we may have to provide feed for the game when they are struggling to find enough themselves. Under completely natural conditions they would be able to migrate to areas with rain or more vegetation, but the days when that was possible have now sadly passed across most of Africa. We also provide waterholes where the game can drink when the rivers dry up.

The populations of our herbivores grow largely unchecked in the absence of large predators, and so we must step in here as well and remove excess animals to prevent overgrazing and risk of disease. Our "passive capture boma" is designed to catch animals under the least stressful conditions and house them until they can be relocated to other reserves. The introduction of cheetahs has had the desired effect of keeping the numbers of the smaller herbivores under control.

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