Rain brings little relief for Kruger
Though some species like lions and wild dogs benefit from the drought, others do not.
SKUKUZA – Although rain is falling in the Kruger National Park, the end of the current severe drought is still not in sight. “The current rain will help, but it will not change the situation significantly,” said head of SANParks scientific services, Mr Danie Pienaar, at a press briefing this Wednesday. “The impact of this drought will keep on increasing during the next couple of months,” he said, especially since big rain for the park is only expected around November.
Though some species like lions and wild dogs benefit from the drought, others do not. “Elephants and rhinos are very resilient, while zebras and blue wildebeests benefit from the shorter grass and the safety of the open landscape,” he said. However, hippos and in time, buffaloes will suffer severely. Hippos need deep water to sit in during the daytime, and can only feed a certain distance from perennial water. These are the areas that will be trampled and depleted of vegetation first.
The situation is exacerbated by the dams in the park, causing unnatural breeding grounds for hippos. When the dams dry up, the hippos descend on existing, smaller pools in rivers in unnaturally high densities. Other animals are denied access, while the water quality deteriorates substantially. “We’ve created an unnatural system that allowed them to increase unnaturally.” The hippo population is about 7 000 or 8 000, but Pienaar said he believed the numbers could drop to around
2 000, similar to what happened during the 1991/92 drought. Pienaar used the opportunity to confirm that the reopening of waterholes that management closed in previous years is not part of the plan. “Waterholes do not grow grass,” he said. In fact, providing too much water might increase animal mortalities. Their survival is dependent on vegetation reserves created far away from water, where it is allowed to recover, in comparison to vegetation that is constantly trampled close to water.
Pienaar said, “Animal welfare should not be confused with ecosystem welfare. Droughts are healthy for the ecosystem and, what is healthy for ecosystems, is not necessarily good for individual animals and plants. SANParks manages for healthy ecosystems rather than individual animals.”
Other impacts experienced during earlier droughts that are likely to happen again include increased impact of water pollution, toxic algal blooms in certain dams and an increase in anthrax. Management is also expecting an increase in animals breaking out of the park in search of food. During previous droughts, the incidents of bushmeat poaching inside the park also increased substantially, as desperate neighbouring communities grappled with food shortages.
“We understand that drought is beneficial to Kruger but the human impact on surrounding communities is severe,” he said. SANParks management is now considering how it can help their neighbours buffer the impact of the drought in the coming months. “Perhaps we can use our resources to help them.”
Pienaar said they were investigating whether the park could provide meat for the people outside the park, especially the neediest, such as those at old-age homes and orphanages, especially since it was likely that animals that break out of the park would need to be removed.
