2005/2006 - SANParks

2006South African National ParksVAALBOS NATIONAL PARKOVERVIEWOn 13 June 2005, after lengthy negotiations, the owners of Wintershoekinformed SANParks that they would sell as a going concern to thevalue of about R110 million. This was not possible from the RegionalCommissioners side as the mandate of the Commissioner was tocompensate for land and not for the animals on the land as well.Although the owners were initially not pleased with the offer, themeeting proved successful.The owners of Wintershoek eventually agreed to sell the property tothe Department of Land Affairs and the process started. The ownersof Wintershoek also acquired 2 new properties and on 20 Februarythey started moving game to these properties.CONSERVATION ISSUESGame capture took place at Vaalbos during May 2005 and March2006. The totals are included below (Table 1). The park also moved13 Roan Antelope from one camp to the other at Graspan to minimisethe fi ghting that occurred between the males.No incidents of Anthrax were reported for this period. The breedingof the rare species is going very well. Vaalbos and Graspan currentlyhouse just over 320 Buffalo. At present there is no alien-clearingprogram conducted at Vaalbos. The parks however doing controlon species like Datura.Table 2: March 2006SpeciesTotalsSpringbok 58Zebra 36Red Hartebeest 47Gemsbok 65RAINFALLMONTHmmLONG TERM AVE1997-2005 (mm)April 2005 54.5 45.9May 2005 2 14June 2005 2.5 3.1July 2005 0 2.9August 2005 0 6September 2005 0 13.5October 2005 24.5 29.5November 2005 36.5 38December 2005 73.5 74.4January 2006 168.8 64.4February 2006 81.4 47.4March 2006 141.7 92.1TOTAL (12 Months) 585.4 431.2A new Black Rhino bull was introduced from Tswalo. Wildeman, thedominant Black Rhino bull, died after it was noted that his condition wasvery bad. On 5 October his carcass was found and it was determinedthat he had acute arthritis in his hips. The White Rhino bull that wascaught and sold from Vaalbos was replaced with the bull that thepark had at Graspan. In March 2006 the park also started with theinternal game moves. Totals are included in the table below (Table 2).No game moves to Wintershoek were undertaken.Table 1: May 2005The Vaal River was at a very low level until 27 February. The waterlevel then increased and covered the low water bridge at the gate.The good rain in Gauteng resulted in the Bloemhof Dam sluices beingopened and the 1,200 cubic meters per second was let out.This caused the low water bridge to the park to be submerged forabout six weeks. Guests had to make use of alternative routes anddetours to get to the park and this also had a negative impact ontourism for this period.SpeciesTotalsBlack Rhino 3White Rhino 2Red Hartebeest 114Roan 12Tsessebe 38Eland 16Gemsbok 27Ostrich 1477