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Does any body knows if buffalo has been reintroduced to Marakele?

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Marakele is home to most of the large mammals synonymous with the African bush, including elephant, black and white rhino, and leopard. Large Predators such as brown hyena, leopard and now also lion, occur in the park. Resident antelope include, sable, kudu, eland, impala, waterbuck, tsessebe and many smaller species. Chacma baboon and vervet monkey are two species to be watched carefully for mischief, particularly around the rest camps.

So, no buffs yet, sorry.

A quick update on the buffalo at Marakele. SANParks has re-introduced buffalo following an absence of two to three years.

We had to remove all the buffalo due to an outbreak of the Theleria disease. There was then a two year quarantine period, and we have now re-introduced 15 sentinel bulls which will be tested in a year or so.

If they are still disease free further breeding herds will be introduced.

This is excelent news, thanks Paul!

I can't wait to meet these sentinels!

From where were they re-introduced?

Why only bulls Paul?

I suppose that if cows and bulls were introduced, the population would increase and (should disease make a reappearance) it would be an even bigger problem to eradicate it

Sorry for not answering on this topic earlier.

We have only introduced bulls at this stage as we still need to monitor that the Theileria disease does not re-appear. The 15 bulls have all been collared so that they can be located and tested at a later stage.

The plan is to test a sample of the 15 at the end of this year (2012) and then to test all 15 in about April/May of next year (2013). They will then have gone through two rainy seasons since re-introduction.

If they are all negative we will introduce cows in order to establish viable breeding herds.

Very interesting Paul.........thanks for the info.

I take it that the buffalo were intoducted in the 'non' dangerous section of the park?? Going to visit Marakele in October again!! Can't wait!!