Karoo and the Garden Route. April 2024
3. Mountain Zebra National Park.
CAPE MOUNTAIN ZEBRA (Equus zebra zebra)
Cape mountain zebras once roamed over most of the Cape’s mountainous areas where enough water, shelter and grazing were found. Illegal hunting and competition for natural grazing with livestock saw their numbers plummet until conservation measures managed to reverse the trend.
The endangered Cape mountain zebra was reduced to about 90 animals in the 1950s. However, the conservation efforts by provincial reserves, national parks and landowners have paid off and there are now over 2000 of them.
The Mountain Zebra National Park at Cradock, proclaimed in 1937, was the first reserve to offer them protection.
We have visited this park on numerous occassions and enjoy the beautiful scenery as well as the animals and birds.
We spent 2 nights at a comfortable chalet at the main camp and did a couple of drives around the park. We saw lots of animals, mostly quite far away but did get a few close-ups. We saw mountain zebra,springbok, red hartebeast, wildebeest and kudu.
We did a guided night drive with an informative guide. I didn't take any photos but David did. Our best sightings were a couple of jackal and, just before we got back to camp, an ardwolf, which we watched for a few minutes as it made its way through a grassy area. This was the first time we've seen an ardwolf.
We saw and heard several birds of which 2 were raptors - a kestrel and a pale chanting goshawk.
There's a lovely drive up and along a ridge with great views and look out points which then turns into a narrow track down to a shallow river crossing.
We stopped by the river crossing to have a look around. There were several small frogs in the water.
Another African sunset.
Last updated: July 2024