scholarly journals Clustering Kruger National Park visitors based on interpretation

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Botha ◽  
M. Saayman ◽  
M. Kruger

Interpretation is considered to be an important educational tool that not only addresses visitors’ expectations but also contributes to national parks’ conservation purposes. This study segmented the Kruger National Park’s visitors based on expected interpretation services and revealed four clusters that differed based on their expected and experienced interpretation services as well as their motivational aspects. This study’s distinct contribution is the alternative segmentation approach which revealed the viability of the expected interpretation variable to use for ecotourism segmentation purposes. This study not only assists the Kruger National Park to appropriately address interpretation services but also aids other ecotourism destinations.

Koedoe ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam M. Ferreira ◽  
Cathy Greaver ◽  
Chenay Simms

South African National Parks (SANParks) manage landscapes rather than numbers of elephants (Loxodonta africana) to mitigate the effects that elephants may have on biodiversity, tourism and stakeholder conservation values associated with protected areas. This management philosophy imposes spatial variability of critical resources on elephants. Restoration of such ecological processes through less intensive management predicts a reduction in population growth rates from the eras of intensive management. We collated aerial survey data since 1995 and conducted an aerial total count using a helicopter observation platform during 2015. A minimum of 17 086 elephants were resident in the Kruger National Park (KNP) in 2015, growing at 4.2% per annum over the last generation of elephants (i.e. 12 years), compared to 6.5% annual population growth noted during the intensive management era ending in 1994. This may come from responses of elephants to density and environmental factors manifested through reduced birth rates and increased mortality rates. Authorities should continue to evaluate the demographic responses of elephants to landscape scale interventions directed at restoring the limitation of spatial variance in resource distribution on elephant spatiotemporal dynamics and the consequences that may have for other conservation values.Conservation implications: Conservation managers should continue with surveying elephants in a way that allows the extraction of key variables. Such variables should focus on measures that reflect on how theory predicts elephants should respond to management interventions.


Parasite ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Louis J. La Grange ◽  
Samson Mukaratirwa

Knowledge on the epidemiology, host range and transmission of Trichinella spp. infections in different ecological zones in southern Africa including areas of wildlife-human interface is limited. The majority of reports on Trichinella infections in sub-Saharan Africa were from wildlife resident in protected areas. Elucidation of the epidemiology of the infections and the prediction of hosts involved in the sylvatic cycles within specific ecological niches is critical. Of recent, there have been reports of Trichinella infections in several wildlife species within the Greater Kruger National Park (GKNP) of South Africa, which has prompted the revision and update of published hypothetical transmission cycles including the hypothetical options based previously on the biology and feeding behaviour of wildlife hosts confined to the GKNP. Using data gathered from surveillance studies and reports spanning the period 1964–2019, confirmed transmission cycles and revised hypothesized transmission cycles of three known Trichinella species (T. zimbabwensis, Trichinella T8 and T. nelsoni) are presented. These were formulated based on the epidemiological factors, feeding habits of hosts and prevalence data gathered from the GKNP. We presume that the formulated sylvatic cycles may be extrapolated to similar national parks and wildlife protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa where the same host and parasite species are known to occur. The anecdotal nature of some of the presented data confirms the need for more intense epidemiological surveillance in national parks and wildlife protected areas in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa to unravel the epidemiology of Trichinella infections in these unique and diverse protected landscapes.


Koedoe ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam M. Ferreira ◽  
Charlene Bissett ◽  
Carly R. Cowell ◽  
Angela Gaylard ◽  
Cathy Greaver ◽  
...  

African rhinoceroses (rhinos) experienced a poaching onslaught since 2008 with the epicentre in South Africa where most of the world’s rhinos occur. South African national parks, under the management of South African National Parks (SANParks), are custodian to 49% of South Africa’s white and 31% of the country’s black rhinos. We collated information on rhino population sizes in seven national parks from 2011 to 2015. We include and report on rhino surveys in Kruger National Park during 2014 and 2015. Southwestern black rhinos increased over the study period, which allows SANParks to achieve its contribution to South Africa’s 2020 target of 260 individuals. South-central black rhinos declined over the study period because of poaching in the Kruger National Park, making it difficult for SANParks to realise a 9% increase per annum for its expected contribution to the South African target of 2800 individuals. For southern white rhinos, SANParks requires 5% annual growth for its contribution to the South African target of 20 400 individuals. To continue to evaluate the achievement of these targets, SANParks needs annual population estimates relying on total counts, mark-recapture techniques and block-based sample counts to track trends in rhino populations. SANParks’ primary challenge in achieving its contribution to South Africa’s rhino conservation targets is associated with curbing poaching in Kruger National Park.Conservation implications: The status and trends of rhino species in SANParks highlight key challenges associated with achieving the national targets of South Africa. Conservation managers will need to improve the protection of southern white rhino, while the Department of Environmental Affairs need to be made aware of the challenges specifically associated with not achieving targets for south-central black rhino. Outcomes for south-western black rhino have already realised and the good conservation efforts should continue.


Koedoe ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
I.L Rautenbach

In aid of a zoogeographical survey of the mammals of Transvaal, Republic of South Africa, the National Parks Board of Trustees kindly allowed the author to study the reference collection of small mammals from the Kruger National Park, during August 1974. This collection at Skukuza formed the basis of a checklist for smaller mammals of the Kruger National Park (Pienaar 1964, 1972).


Koedoe ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
U De V Pienaar

In a previous publication Pienaar (1978 The freshwater fishes of the Kruger National Park, Publ. National Parks Board) provides a systematic account and check-list of the freshwater fishes of the Kruger National Park (KNP), Republic of South Africa.


Koedoe ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peet Van der Merwe ◽  
Melville Saayman

The Kruger National Park (KNP) one of the largest conservation areas in South Africa, attracts in excess of one million visitors a year and is regarded as an icon destination in international tourism. Since this park attracts more tourists than any other park in South Africa, the purpose of this article is to determine the reasons (the travel motives) why tourists visit the park. Little research has been done on travel motives to national parks and this was the first of its kind in South Africa. The research was conducted by means of questionnaires. A factor analysis was used to determine the travel motives. Six factors were identified, namely nature, activities, attractions, nostalgia, novelty and escape from routine. Some of these motives were confirmed by similar research in other countries, although the similarities are not significant. This research confirmed that different attractions and destinations fed different travel motives, hence the need for more studies of this nature to be conducted.


IFLA Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 034003522091251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nkholedzeni Sidney Netshakhuma

The research aims to analyse the alliance of archive, library and museum (ALM) at the Kruger National Park with regards to compliance with legislations, ALM’s role in education and the adoption of information and communication technology. A qualitative method was used to collect data. The research found that most of the participants were not aware of the legislations governing ALM in South Africa. ALM was not fully utilised for educational activities to enhance knowledge management; there is a low rate of adoption of information and communication technology as an enabler to provide education. Hopefully, this study will help to formulate research agendas to address societal challenges, such as adopting the policies which will have a positive impact on the implementation of ALM policies.


Koedoe ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
W.R. Branch ◽  
H.H. Braack

On 4 May 1988 a sub-adult (50 mm snout-vent length, 42 mm tail) Jones' girdled lizard Cordylus tropidosternum jonesi was collected in a pile of wood being off-loaded at the new restcamp in the Karoo National Park, Beaufort West. The wood had been transported by lorry from the Kruger National Park. The specimen is deposited in the herpetological collection of the Port Elizabeth Museum (PEM R 4584). Jones' girdled lizard is a small, arboreal cordylid that shelters under tree bark and in hollow logs. It is common and widely-distributed in the Kruger National Park (Pienaar, Haacke & Jacobsen 1983, The Reptiles of the Kruger National Park, 3rd edition. Pretoria: National Parks Board) and adjacent lowveld, being replaced in northern Zimbabwe and East Africa by the nominate race. Hewitt & Power (1913, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 3: 147-176, 1913) reported a similar translocation of the species to Kimberley in association with timber brought to the diamond mining camps. One of us noted recently the ease and danger of the unwitting spread of commensal reptile species into conservation areas (Branch 1978, Koedoe 30: 165), and this is confirmed by this additional example. We recommend that should similar shipments of wood be considered essential, then they be fumigated to prevent the translocation of other alien organisms that may potentially have more dangerous consequences.


Koedoe ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Hechter Schulz ◽  
J. J. Steyn ◽  
R. Rose-Innes

Published by permission of the Secretary for Health and the Director, National Parks Board of Trustees, Pretoria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5341
Author(s):  
Mashudu Andra Mabibibi ◽  
Kaitano Dube ◽  
Konanani Thwala

Tourism has often been blamed for its unsustainable ways for a number of years now. Consequently, there have been efforts to ensure that tourism contributes to the host communities to address some of the sustainability challenges through responsible and sustainable tourism initiatives in the recent past. With less than nine years to go before the lapse of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a need to take stock of how tourism enterprises such as national parks are contributing to the SDGs. This study examines how Kruger National Parks (KNP) is assisting the host communities in meeting the SDG goals and targets. The study made use of 30 in-depth key informant interviews, field observations and critical document analysis. The study found that regardless of the challenges it faces as an organization in partnering with host communities for developmental purposes, Kruger National Park has assisted communities to meet at least 15 out of the 17 SDGs. These span from social to economic, environmental and cultural SDGs. Since KNP’s projects address host community needs, several challenges need to be dealt with to ensure the sustainability of these projects post COVID-19 pandemic, which has undermined many nature tourism establishments worldwide. Besides the pandemic, there is a need to manage community expectations with regard to how far it can address some of the challenges faced by communities.


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