Is South Africa’s Kruger National Park under Threat?

The Tsavo Park in Kenya suffered a catastrophic ecological disaster with the elephant population there nearly self-destructing, this after their 7 000 strong black rhino population started dying off from starvation.

The black rhino could no longer reach the foliage on which to browse because the elephant had raised the browse line beyond the reach of the black rhino in the ecological re-engineering of Tsavo transforming it from a woodland to a grassland.

In the process the quality of the nutritional value of the remaining biomass deteriorated becoming poorer and poorer as the woodland disappeared, being replaced by grassland.

Then in 1970/71 a two year drought occurred causing the elephants to die in their thousands from malnutrition,

South Africa’s Kruger National Park is in the process of being transformed into a grassland, just like in Tsavo, except on a much larger scale.

It begs the question whether the Kruger National Park, renowned for its biodiversity, is heading for the same fate as Tsavo?

Where that biodiversity will be lost forever?

Already a number of raptors that nest in the trees being destroyed or felled by elephant are on the IUCN’s red list of critically endangered species but the carnage will not stop there.

Other animals such as the leopard and the giraffe, just to mention two of them, as well as other browsers as well as tree nesters will, in due course, suffer from the loss of their habitats, these being removed or destroyed by the progressively growing elephant population in the Kruger National Park.

As far back as 2005 the late Bruce Bryden, who was head warden in the park, warned that South Africa would lose the Kruger National Park unless something drastic is done not only to arrest the burgeoning growth of the elephant population in the park but in fact reverse it!

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature tells us that the main objectives of a National Park are conservation of the full spectrum of biodiversity, recreation as well as research. South Africa’s Kruger National Park is renowned for its incredible biodiversity across the 35 different landscapes and six ecosystems that the park encompasses.

The variety and beauty is simply extraordinary, with some 2000 plant species, over 500 bird species, hundreds of other animals, reptiles, insects and invertebrates. But will the park stay that way? Sadly, far too few people realize. Just how extraordinary this biodiversity really is, let alone appreciate it.

An extremely important part of this biodiversity is the elephant, a keystone species so critical to the ecology of the Kruger National Park.

Watch this documentary here telling the future of the KNP.