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A
multitude of wildlife within seven years - 01.09.04
The private nature reserve covers an area of 112,000
ha (1,120 km²), stretching from the top of the
Klein Karas Mountains to the bottom of the Fish River
Canyon. In 1997, two years after the purchase of the
first piece of land for the park, according to estimates
there were just 500 springbok, about 30 kudu, 40 oryx,
20 Hartmann's mountain zebra and 30 ostrich. Today there
are over 2,500 springbok, some 500 kudu, 400 oryx, 390
mountain zebra and 300 ostrich. This is the result of
the game count which was carried out in the end of August. |
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These
numbers change from year to year. On first impressions
the graph suggests a decrease in wildlife numbers from
2003 to 2004. This is true for a number of species such
as springbok, some of which moved into the adjacent
Fish River Canyon Park because of local rainfalls there,
and kudu which moved east towards the escarpment because
of poor rains in Gondwana. However, if one looks at
the biomass of wildlife (the combined mass of all the
animals per hectare of land) we find that there has
been an increase, of over 30 per cent, from 2003 to
2004. This is because the number of large species such
as oryx and mountain zebra has increased significantly. |
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game counts form an important part of the management
of Gondwana Cañon Park. But not only are
they an important monitoring mechanism, they are
also fun. Despite the early start and the chilly
weather there is always something new to see –
a family of bat-eared foxes with their young,
a martial eagle at its nest, an endemic Barlow's
lark (occurring in Namibia only) that had not
previously been known to occur east of the Fish
River Canyon. And all the counters know that they
are contributing to the sustainable management
of Namibia's fragile desert system and one of
the country's most innovative and successful conservation
models - Gondwana Cañon Park. |
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Gondwana Director Chris Brown explains procedures and the importance of the count. |
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