Sometimes the most exciting results are not what you find, but what you don’t. In June, we visited the Groot Estuary to survey the invasive western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). Unlike most fish surveys, where the aim is to catch as many fish as possible, we were hoping for exactly the opposite. As we worked our…
The beginning of 2026 brought heavy rainfall to many parts of Kruger National Park (KNP), with unusually high rainfall recorded, which led to widespread flooding in several areas. With so much rain falling over a relatively short period, many people wondered how this event compared with some of the major floods experienced in the past,…
School holidays are always a perfect opportunity to combine learning and adventure, and this holiday was exactly that for the children of the Tokai Forest Community. On the 10th of July 2026, the Cape Research Centre marine team organised and accompanied a group of 23 children on an educational field trip to the Two Oceans…
The recent storms along the Garden Route were a dramatic reminder of how quickly our coast can change. Intense rain swelled rivers, pushed up water levels and, in places like Swartvlei, brought the estuary to the point where managers had to manually breach the long‑closed mouth to the sea to prevent flooding of nearby homes…
Between the 2nd and 4th of March 2026, teams from SANParks, French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) came together to support Namaqua National Park MPA’s journey towards archiving Green List status. The week brought together SANParks’ management and science teams, the recently appointed park manager and section rangers…
Along much of South Africa’s coastline lie small, dynamic water bodies known as temporarily open/closed estuaries (TOCEs). To the untrained eye, these systems can appear “problematic” when their mouths are close to the sea, with water level, chemistry, and aesthetic changes being noted. Yet decades of research show that this opening and closing is not…
From 6 – 10 October, teams from SANParks and the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) met at the Iroise Marine Nature Park, in France, for a collaborative workshop that was focused on improving the design and use of indicators in the management of protected areas. The workshop took a comparative and interactive format where the two…
South Africa’s marine realm, including its marine protected areas, are facing increasingly intense heatwaves and cold spells, threatening the biodiversity they were designed to protect. Our study reveals that SANParks-managed MPAs like Robben Island, Table Mountain, and Addo are among the hardest hit marine protected areas in South Africa. However, the ecological impacts of these…
There is something special about a secluded spot nestled between hills, surrounded by bushveld, wildlife, and crisp mountain air to get the creative juices flowing to focus on some deep work without distraction. In November 2025, the Savanna Research Unit convened at Pullen Farm, on the outskirts of Mbombela, for a focused knowledge synthesis workshop…
On 10–11 April 2025, Dr Alison Towner (South African International Maritime Institute) and Dr Alison Kock (South African National Parks) led a collaborative expedition with marine biologist Don Marx (Southernmost Apnea) aboard White Shark Africa’s research vessel to deploy Mini-PAT (pop-up archival) satellite tags from Wildlife Computers on white sharks in Kleinbrak, Mossel Bay. Over…
You may be asking yourself, “What is a TILLie?” and that’s the first question I had when I heard about the programme. Well, TILL stands for Transdisciplinary International Learning Lab, and the TILLies were a group of international students conducting their studies in Germany, Canada, and South Africa and participating in a six-week immersive course…
SANParks co-hosted the successful 7th Garden Route Interface and Networking (GRIN) meeting, from 30 September to 2 October 2025, at Villa Castollini near Brenton-on-Sea in the Garden Route. GRIN provides a practice-oriented space for practitioners, scientists and students to co-learn about human-nature connections in conservation. This year, 85 participants contributed to more than 50 stimulating…