Tswalu Kalahari

The Hartmann’s Mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) is described in the IUCN Red data book as ENDANGERED, and although Tswalu visitors often spot these animals trotting through the Korannaberg Mountains they are certainly not common.

Distinguishable from the more common Plains (or Burchell’s) zebra the Hartmann’s Mountain zebra prefers a mountainous habitat. Other distinguishable features include the presence of a dewlap (a flap of skin on the underside of the neck), a rusty-red muzzle, the absence of stripes on the belly and a “grid iron” pattern of stripes above the tail. Another obvious difference is the absence of the light brown “shadow” stripes on their bodies.

A few years ago, Tswalu purchased a section of mountainous land to the south east of the reserve. Over the past three years we have delayed incorporating this area into the “greater” Tswalu and rather given the overgrazed land time to rest and recover from the abuse so typical of livestock farming in these parts. The vegetation has now begun to recover and the eco-system is ready for some of the more natural grazers to return. We have started with the return of Hartmann’s mountain zebra!

Tswalu is slowly coming out of the short Kalahari winter.

In reality, the Kalahari actually has only three seasons. We are slowly moving out of the “cold dry” season and into the “hot dry” season, soon followed by the “hot wet” season between November and March. This year, our winter has been a little more chilly than usual. We always do expect night time temperatures to fall below freezing for at least a few days, however in the past two months we have had a few nights where temperatures fell well below freezing as particularly icy cold fronts came up from Cape Town.

In December 2009, an adult female of the northern pride gave birth to four healthy cubs. Now, seven months later, there is commotion in the pride as it seems the second female is in estrous, with the dominant male harassing her and not allowing her even a few meters away from him.

At the end of July, the Grassland Society of Southern Africa held their 45th annual congress in Kimberley. The theme of the congress was Sustainable and Adaptive Practices in Range and Pasture Systems. At the end of the congress, a ceremony was held where Tswalu was presented with an award.

As the seasons in the Kalahari change, the diversity and abundance of various life forms change at the same time. In particular, we look forward to visits from bird species as many migrate north at this time into the African tropics or even fly further to Europe and a summer in the northern hemisphere .  As these bird dynamics change, species which may indeed be common elsewhere, sometimes emerge as rarities here on Tswalu. And this happened just a few days ago when we were thrilled to see a small covey of six Orange River Partridge.