IT is always a cause for celebration when a new nature reserve is proclaimed and this one calls for a special celebration for botanical people.
The Knersvlakte Nature Reserve near Vanrhynsdorp in the Western Cape, about 300 kilometres north of Cape Town, was recently announced by World Wide Fund for Nature – South Africa, CapeNature and the Leslie Hill Succulent Karoo Trust as a special botanical reserve.
It has been described as ‘One of the crown jewels in our country’s rich botanical treasure trove’ – it is owned by WWF-SA, through funding of the Karoo Trust and it is managed by CapeNature.
It consists of just over 85,000 hectares within the Succulent Karoo region, north of the Olifants River. It contains about 1,500 plant species, 190 of which are endemic, of which 155 are threatened with extinction according to the IUCN’s Red List.
The vegetation in the Knersvlakte Nature Reserve is uniquely adapted to harsh weather and the dry conditions of the area and is therefore clearly deserving of its new status among South Africans national protected areas.
Some of the plants in the Reserve glory in names like, bababoudjies (Argyroderma), krapogies (Oophytum oviforme) and duim-en-vinger (Mesembryanthemum digitata).Obviously a place to visit and staying with matters botanical, here’s a new book recently published, Fynbos: Ecology and Management.
I hasten to point out that the Knersvlakte Nature Reserve has been proclaimed to conserve the succulent Karoo type vegetation. Our famous fynbos also desperately needs conservation, but the book still makes interesting reading for the average fynbos hugger.
There is lots of interesting information on such general subjects as fire, wetlands and biodiversity, the sort of thing that those of us interested in basic conservation want, and probably need to read. A good bet for that Christmas stocking.
Moving on, I mentioned our hyaena experience in the Impila Camp in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve in Zululand the other day. Well, we’d also been warned about the monkeys.
We chuckled. If there is one thing we do know about it’s monkeys in camp. Anyway, we certainly had our fair share of monkey visitors while we were there, but the accommodation units in the camp had all been so well monkey-proofed that we never lost a thing. Well done whoever was responsible, the Hibiscus Coast could do with your services.
Hyaenas and monkeys were not the only residents of Impila Camp either (apart from us visitors of course). We had impala ambling past on a regular basis. One day we had a beautiful kudu cow pay us a visit and another day we had a family of warthogs trot by, mum, dad and lots of hoglets.
We also saw some really big and beautifully coloured lizards, but they were too quick for us to properly identify. The bird life in the camp was good too, but I’ll come back to that another time. Cheers!
*Fynbos: Ecology and Management, Editors: Karen J. Esler, Shirley M. Pierce and Charl de Villiers, Briza, Pretoria, 2014.
