It was the result of a tireless collaboration between this lodge, reserve and conservation experts.
August 14, 2019
After collaborative efforts that have spanned over a decade, Makalali Private Game Reserve and Makalali Private Nature Reserve’s on-site Buffalo Breeding programme has culminated in 52 indigenous African buffaloes being released.
This triumphant moment in conservation was the result of a tireless collaboration between this lodge and reserve, and conservation experts.
The great African buffalo, once widely distributed through sub-Saharan Africa, was almost driven to extinction throughout southern Africa by the rinderpest epidemic in the late 1800s. Thankfully, dedicated conservation efforts and this animal’s natural resilience have brought them back in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana.
The African buffalo can carry foot-and-mouth disease, corridor disease, and a new threat with potentially widespread implications has now surfaced. In recent years, bovine tuberculosis (BTB) has affected a large number of buffaloes in the Greater Kruger system.
Because of the prevalence of BTB, breeding disease-free buffaloes became imperative, and a disease-free buffalo breeding project began more than a decade ago in the 400-hectare buffalo camp within the Greater Makalali Private Game Reserve.
As a result, isolated breeding pockets outside the Kruger Park system and associated areas were established to ensure the disease was eliminated. These pockets are outside the demarcated “red area”.
On Saturday June 22 the fences around the buffalo camp finally came down, and the exciting occasion took to the air with the animals being herded out of the red area by helicopter.
Staff and their families – including Gary Elmes, chairman of the Greater Makalali Private Game Reserve, and reserve warden Rob Panos – were on-site to see it all happen.
Elmes commented, “Releasing these magnificent beasts into the reserve is another great effort by an amazing team of people to strengthen and protect the indigenous buffalo population that we would like future generations to see in their natural environment. I am proud to have been here when the first animals arrived, and now 12 years later to set 52 buffaloes free to roam.”
The buffalo breeding effort is part of a greater game reintroduction programme for endangered species and species previously extinct to the area. So far, elephants, spotted hyenas, hippos, cheetahs, white rhinos and, most recently, African wild dogs, have been relocated onto the 25 000-hectare property.
Over the past 10 years, a number of small species have also been released, including African wild cats, pangolins, caracals, Cape clawless otters, spotted genets, bush babies and leopard tortoises.
