Kruger. Nature miracle

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Kruger. Nature miracle

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The Kruger National Park is located in the Republic of South Africa, in the east of the Transvaal. The park was named after the President of the Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger (1845-1904), who did a lot to preserve the country's nature.

Kruger National Park

The park was created in 1898 and covers an area of 1 hectares, relatively flat, with small hills (the highest point is 820 m).

The Olifants and Sabie rivers divide the park into three parts. The most common type of vegetation is the park savannah.

Here you can see numerous representatives of the South African fauna. Elephants, buffaloes, hippos, giraffes, lions, leopards, cheetahs, spotted and black-backed hyenas, warthogs, monkeys, black rhinoceros, and in 1961-1962 white rhinoceroses are found in the park. There are many types of antelopes: steinbock, waterbucks, horses, elands, blue wildebeest, kudu, pala, etc. In 1962, oribi were reacclimatized. And of course, there are many birds here.

About a hundred years ago, in the expanses of the South African savannas, one could see grazing huge herds of quaggs - zebras of unusual colors, known as the southern subspecies of the steppe, or ordinary, zebra, and earlier in the scientific literature it was called Burchell's zebra. Quagga got its name due to its characteristic neighing - "qua-ha". In addition, quaggs have a beautiful reddish-brown color, diluted with stripes only on the head, neck and front of the body.

The number of these once common animals began to decrease significantly with the arrival of European settlers in South Africa in the second half of the 1878th century. It was believed that it was best to make containers for storing grain from quagga skins. The last quagga was shot in 1910, eight years before legislation was passed to protect this subspecies. A subspecies of the steppe zebra - Burchell's zebra lived in the savannas of South Africa until XNUMX.

Some sections of the Luvuvhu river dry up during the winter, leaving several large puddles from its bed. The main puddle here, several meters wide and about a hundred meters long, is locally called the backwater of hippos, although antelopes (kudu, nyalas and impalas), baboons, warthogs, birds and crocodiles graze next to it.

At the watering hole, antelopes often find themselves very close to crocodiles, but, fortunately, antelopes prefer shallow water where crocodiles cannot hide. But warthogs do not risk approaching the backwater - they tear the sand with their snouts until clean water is collected in the pit. Then baboons use these puddles.

Herds of buffaloes appear at the backwater of hippos. Crocodiles and hippos immediately react to them: reptiles bite into the carcasses of buffaloes, hippos try to knock unwanted guests out of the slurry with blows of their noses.

As the drought continues, more crocodiles arrive from nearby dry pools, although the size of the puddle is greatly reduced. Therefore, even fast nyalas and impalas do not approach the shore and drink from puddles.

After the drought lasts three months, only a few small puddles remain on the ground. The backwater turns into viscous mud. Many crocodiles are already trying to find shelter in the bush. And on the former shore, baboons are making new indentations.

Carol Hughes writes: "The boundaries of the backwater can now only be determined by the half-decayed corpses of baboons and the bones of antelopes. The dried-up river bed has turned into a yellow sandy road. Everything is motionless around - not a single living creature. Only the bush gives a shadow, and some kind life. Where it's a little cooler and the air a little more humid, we counted seven crocodiles. They balance between life and death."

Only after 14 months from Luvuvhu water began to flow into the pool of hippos again. Life comes alive! Crocodiles again slowly slide along the surface of the channel. The hippos that survived the drought in other puddles returned to their usual habitat. Everyone gathered here at the watering hole: baboons, warthogs, nyalas, kudu and impalas.

Author: Yudina N.A.

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