 Reference Base  The adulteration of the fauna and flora of our national p... |
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Bigalke, R., 1947. The adulteration of the fauna and flora of our national parks. South African Journal of Science 43: 221-225
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| Location: |
Africa - Southern Africa - South Africa |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
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According to Stevenson-Hamilton (7), the Square-lipped or White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) disappeared from the Low Veld about the sixties of the nineteenth century and the Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) in the nineties.. He expresses the opinion that their extinction was due to the activities of Joao Albassini's native hunters, who hunted for ivory and skins in the Low Veld. Kirby also states that a few Black Rhinoceroses survived in the Lebombo and the Matamiri bush in 1896.
Within recent years there have been sporadic reports of the presence of the Black Rhinoceros in the dense bush south of the Sabi River within the Kruger National Park. A summary of these occurrences is given in the annual report of theWarden of the Kruger National Park for the year 1936. In.that report Col. Stevenson-Hamilton infers that a few Black Rhinoceroses are present in the Lower Sabi (Matamiri) bush during the summer months, and that they probably wander away into Portuguese East Africa when the waterholes have dried up. No Black Rhinoceroses or tracks have been seen in the Lower Sabi bush subsequent to the year 1938.
Since both the Black and the Square-lipped Rhinoceros formerly inhabited the Low Veld, there would be every justification from the zoological point of view to restock the Kruger National Park with both species. But apart from the difficulty of carrying out such a project, another aspect must be considered. and that is the reaction of the animals to tourist traffic. In the Zululand Reserves tourists are accompanied by gameguards, but this arrangement would hardly be possible in the Sabi bush of the Kruger Park, since a much greater and more densely bushed area is involved. Apart from the practical difficulties of transferring specimens from Zululand, the reintroduction of the Black and the White Rhinoceros into the Kruger National Park is a knotty problem. This question did engage the attention of the late Mr. Piet Grobler when he was Minister of Lands, but it never seems to have met with serious attention. While, therefore, no objections can.be made.on scientific grounds against the reintroduction of the Black and the White Rhinoceros into the Kruger National Park, the position is not the same with regard to some other species.
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