In the arid mountain ranges of the Little Karoo in the Western Cape, a remarkable vision is quickly becoming reality. In an area where the last big game was wiped out more than 150 years ago, a dedicated team of conservationists is reintroducing animals that once ranged across the vast plains in great numbers.
These include lion, elephant, buffalo, cheetah, rhino and hippo. (Sadly, there are two species that will never make a comeback: the Cape mountain zebra and the Cape lion were hunted to extinction nearly 200 years ago.)
Reintroducing these herbivores and predators into the 54 000ha Sanbona reserve is just one part of the project, which aims to return the entire ecosystem to a state of self-sustaining equilibrium. In today’s world, this means generating sufficient revenue flows through ecotourism. It is a delicate balancing act that pits the needs of man against those of nature.
The name of the reserve, Sanbona, is a combination of the word San, in reference to the San people who lived in this region, and bona, the Nguni word for ‘vision”, or ‘to see”. Given that the San lived in sustainable co-existence with their environment for several thousand years, to invoke their name for a reserve that aims to balance the needs of man and nature is a statement of ambitious vision.
The ambitions of the Sanbona project are backed by serious intent. The reserve was founded by Adrian Gardiner — who famously pioneered successful ecotourism in the early 1990s when he started Shamwari Wildlife Reserve in the Eastern Cape. Sanbona is also part of the larger Mantis Group that manages several other wildlife reserves, including Shamwari, Jock Safari Lodge in the Kruger National Park and an 8 000ha reserve currently being developed in Pondoland. Mantis also manages a string of boutique hotels that includes Lake Pleasant Hotel outside Knysna, the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg, the Steenberg Hotel in Cape Town and the Draycott Hotel in London.
Sanbona is the first wildlife reserve in the Western Cape to reintroduce the ‘big five”. Some of the species now roaming free were last seen in the province more than 200 years ago.
The reserve’s wildlife department, run by conservation manager Andrew Schofield, is monitoring the reintroduction of species to determine the ideal balance between herbivores and predators in the sensitive Little Karoo environment. If there are too many herbivores, they will ultimately destroy the vegetation and denude the landscape. If there are too many predators, they will soon kill off the prey species.
‘Self-sustaining growth is what we want to achieve,” said Schofield, ‘with the idea being that we, as humans, do not have to cull — and that the lions and cheetahs, leopards and brown hyena will all keep the herbivore populations in check.”
Sanbona has two small prides of lions and several cheetahs. Schofield says the predators – which are radio-tagged for easy location – are being closely monitored to establish their effect on the herbivores.
‘The predator-prey relationship is such a critical balance for the success of this reserve that we monitor it on a regular basis. Where most reserves do a game count once a year, we do about three every year so that we can monitor not only the numbers of game, but what the lions and cheetahs are killing.”
Schofield’s team also need to know what effect the herbivores are having on the vegetation. They have instituted a monitoring programme that involves ‘exclusion” plots being set up in each of the reserve’s five major vegetation zones.
In each zone, four plots of 900m2 have each been fenced off with 3m-high electrified fences to prevent animals from grazing in them. Another four areas of the same size are also demarcated but left open for animals to graze on and to act as control comparisons.
Every September rangers conduct ‘drop point” surveys on the plots. This involves dropping a plumb line at regularly spaced intervals and recording in minute detail what vegetation and soil is encountered. This record includes nutrient values and is used to calculate the optimum carrying capacity of the land. By comparing the fenced areas with the unfenced, the rangers can determine whether the animals are degrading the vegetation beyond its ability to regenerate.
The reserve is presently carrying about one-third of its game numbers – well below recommended levels in the industry. The rangers say they will keep the numbers at this level for several years, until they have an accurate picture of the effect the animals have on the vegetation. There are about 250 head of each of the larger antelopes, including eland, kudu and gemsbok, and about 900 to 1 200 of the smaller antelopes, such as bontebok and springbuck.
Of the larger animals, there are currently five elephants and several buffaloes. Their impact on the vegetation is also keenly observed. One of the conservationists, Ryno Erasmus, is doing a master’s degree on vegetation monitoring. He works closely with a biologist from the University of Cape Town to conduct a ‘strip” monitoring programme.
This programme involves using surveying equipment to chart a straight line of 30 trees. Each tree in this line is meticulously observed: its GPS location, its height and width, leaf and shoot density, number of branches and percentage of bark coverage are all carefully logged. Over time, the trees are inspected to determine how badly they are being damaged by elephants.
‘We’re not that interested in following the elephants every day and watching them to see what they eat,” says Erasmus. ‘We’re more interested to see whether they are destroying the trees.”
The rangers have been astounded to discover that the elephants seem mostly to be targeting alien vegetation, which they almost completely destroy. In contrast, they treat the only significantly large indigenous tree, the Karoo acacia, with care and respect – stripping very little bark and only a few shoots off any tree at one time.
Parts of the reserve were farmed before and several alien plant species have had to be removed. In these areas, pioneering species have been introduced to rehabilitate the soil and to allow indigenous vegetation to return. The hoof action of the game helps to turn over the soil and allow seeds to sprout.
‘We find that with the hoof action of the different species – which were missing for a good many years – and the soil disturbance that they cause, we are seeing a lot more germination than in previous years,” says Schofield.
The sparse scrub in the Little Karoo is fairly fire-resistant and fires in the area are an infrequent occurrence. The larger herbivores serve a function often served by fires in other areas – they help to break down the protective outer covering of some plant and seed types, thereby assisting the germination process. They also assist in seed dispersal.
In an attempt to extend its conservation ethic beyond the boundaries of the reserve, Sanbona set up a student training centre called Gondwana which draws trainee conservationists from around the world. The centre accommodates up to eight students, who are given hands-on training and experience in conducting game counts and monitoring wildlife, identifying plants and their medicinal qualities, controlling alien vegetation and soil erosion. They sometimes get the chance to assist in game re-introductions – as happened in March, when three lions where released into the wild.
On the tourism side, Sanbona has situated itself in the ‘luxury-in-Africa” market. It operates two top-flight lodges that cater for ‘high-income, low-impact” ecotourists. At present, only 20 guests can be accommodated in the reserve’s two lodges, Tilney Manor and Khanni Lodge.
Game drives are conducted by trained guides who have accreditations from the Field Guide Association of South Africa. They all have a good knowledge of the local geology, botany, geomorphology and astronomy, in addition to their wildlife expertise.
The Mantis Group has a long-term working relationship with the Wilderness Foundation, a not-for-profit NGO founded by well-known conservationist Dr Ian Player in 1972 which works to preserve and sustain wilderness areas. Mantis also works with the Born Free Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to returning zoo and circus animals, as well as those kept as exotic pets, to their natural environment.