Rapid Recovery of Kruger Park Grazing Expected after Fires. (4 October, 1996)

Kruger National Park officials are confident of a rapid recovery of valuable grazing after fires destroyed about 200 000 ha this week. Chief game ranger Bruce Bryden said yesterday there was never any concern about the veld fires, which were a natural phenomenon triggered by lightning during an 'impressive' thunderstorm on Wednesday. He said fires were a regular occurrence in the Park, and were needed to keep a blance in the ecosystem. If the fire had been induced, game officials would have stopped it, but natural occurrences were never interfered with unless they 'became wildly out of control'.

Bryden said the fires would haved died down completely by late last night or early today and only 12 to 15% of the total area of the Park had been burnt. He said all the large game had moved away to places of safety and had sought other grazing areas. The only mortalities were small animals such as tortoises and rabbits. 'We found one impala through vulture activity, but it was difficult to establish whether it had died through the fire. If there was other game which had been killed by the flames, then we would have found the carcasses through the vultures. For a couple of days the animals will have to look elsewhere to graze, but because of the heavy soil moisture from the summer and winter rainfalls, the vegetation will replenish itself very soon,' Bryden said.

Although fires were not unusual for the Park, it was the first time that fires had raged in four different areas at the same time, making the situation seem much worse than it was. The areas affected were the Satara region, Skukuza, Lower Sabi and parts of Tshokwane. Bryden said an aerial inspection yesterday had shown all was well. He said zebras and baboons, particularly, benefited from the charred tips of branches which had a high mineral content. Also, most of the tick population had been wiped out, which was a relief for the animals. By Priscilla Singh. Courtesy of The Star.