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On two occassions in the same place pretty much I have seen Eland in the South . The Lower Sabie - Tshokwane tar road .

As you go towards Tshokwane from Lower Sabie , as the road starts to ascend towards the Nkume lookout point look on your right hand side .

I ahve seen a lone Eland Bull grazing there .

Anyone going that wat keep en eye out

Interesting Zeeman, I've heard of a few in the Pretoriuskop area - never before where you describe it... I've never seen Eland south of the Tropic of Capricorn...

Do you perhaps have a ?
Was he close - and you could definitely ID it as an Eland?

I would be interested to hear what the guru's have to say

Pity I didnt get a pic as they a bit deep in . I identified them from the horns . A game vehicle was also watching the eland and he identified it as well

He said it was very rare to see a lone Eland so far south

He also said that if you drive every single road in the park and your eyesight could see as far as the eye can see you have only seen 20% of the park so the park holds many secrets and mysteries

I have heard of people seeing a black giraffe and black impala . Very rare species indeed

True Zeeman,

I guess it's all about timing and being at the right place at the right time...

Like Gary Player said - the more he practices, the luckier het gets... Well I believe the more minutes I spend on the raod the luckier I get

seen eland in pretoriuskop area

I've seen them at the Transport Dam years ago.

To Zeeman, Forestgump et. al:
Thanks for the heads-up we'll be in Lower Sabie next week and will visit the spot and (hopefully ) get a shot or two to share with you, if we see any Eland.

Warmest Kruger regards.

Thanx for the thread, exciting stuff!! Would love to see Eland near LS!!

Welcome to the forum Enrico & Erna

Have seen them twice at Shitlhave Dam on different visits. In fact it is the only place that I have seen them in Kruger.

I recall seeing a rather large herd on the slopes of Shitlhave Mountain in the early 90s, as well as a lone and very confiding bull near Piet Grobler Dam during the 2000 floods.

The other week I saw a suprisingly relaxed herd of at least 58 near Lala Palm on the Limpopo floodplain, but that is just about as far from the south as you can get without crossing into Zimbabwe.

Johan

Hey, Zeeman!

Saw that bull, I assume, about 10 years ago!

Same place...

The Pretoriuskop/Transport eland also seem pretty settled, although I haven't heard of them for a while.

Shithlave seems to be there favoured area, but have seen a smaller herd on the Faai loop about 7 years ago...not the bigger herd...maybe a split.

I'm not sure that all these far Southern eland are in their natural range as far as Kruger is concerned...maybe released from holding camp a long time ago, or the H10 bull being an escapee from Moz?

They do travel great distances!

The southernmost natural population would probably be the Northern Timbavati and Shisakashangondzo area!

Hello, Twigga!

Good luck for the trip!

Good comments!

I once saw a small herd of eland between Mestel Dam and Numbi Gate (in the early 80's). I mentioned it to the gatekeeper at Numbi who told me that this small herd was captured in the north and brought down to the south to see if they would eventually move back northwards. I don't know what the outcome of that "study" was.

Since keeping record of all game seen in the park (since 1987) I saw a total of 5 eland (excluding the small herd I'm mentioning above). I saw 2 eland on the H9 betwen Phalaborwa Gate and the H14 junction on 27 June 1994.

A year later (29 June 1995) I saw my last 3 eland in the park on the H1-4 between the S90 and S127 junctions near Ntomeni.