It is well-known that plants give us oxygen and transpire water, and the little organisms within our soils release carbon dioxide. We also know that these gases are also available from the atmosphere. But do we know much about how they move between the ground and the sky above it? Thanks to a quarter of…
What the Research Says About Elephant Numbers So, how many elephants is too many elephants? It’s a question people have wrestled with for ages. Kruger National Park, home to one of Africa’s largest elephant populations, has seen their numbers grow from just a handful in the early 1900s to over 31,000 by 2020. That’s a…
The excessive February rains experienced around most of the southern Kruger National Park, brought with it a phenomenal outbreak of moths. On further examination, it appeared that this was primarily dominated by the Lienard’s achaea, which formed large swarms under most trees and bushes in Skukuza. The genus Achaea is a large one and well over…
Numbers of animals are often of interest and importance for conservationists and the public. Trends in numbers are key indicators of conservation effectiveness. There are numerous ways to determine how many individuals of a species live in a park at a specific time, including aerial surveys, call-up surveys, dung counts and camera trapping. In smaller…
An article, led by Dr Adam Pellegrini from the University of Cambridge, was recently published in Nature (Ecology and Evolution) that considered global effects of long-term frequent fire on woody communities and traits. The experimental burn plots from Kruger National Park formed part of the sites used in the study. I started studying fire in…
As indicated in Part B, the invasion of alien species into the KNP could not be prevented. Unfortunately, little was done to combat the problem of IAPs until the 1950s, and even then, at an insufficient intensity to prevent or curtail the invasions. This was not a problem unique to the KNP, in fact, the…
The KNP, while a large conservation area under protection for the last century, has not escaped the increase in numbers of alien species. Only two accounts provide information on the intentional introduction of alien plants to the area that is now the KNP, before 1900. One was the planting of Spanish or giant reed (Arundo…
Of course, it’s about the cow, but it’s not JUST about the cow. The Kruger National Park (KNP) livestock compensation programme aims to offset the direct damages incurred to livestock owners as a result of large predators escaping from the Kruger National Park. However, the programme also hopes to serve as one of many tools…