Gone are the days when only the sun bleached bones of elephant could be found in the Olifantskloof and when only the elderly could tell tales of herds of game following age old migration routes through Mountainlands. This veritable Eden is being restored to its former glory. Now, through modern game capture techniques, the game that once roamed the pristine mountains more than a century ago, are being reintroduced as part of the overall plan to redress and protect the delicate ecology. Game stocking has been an ongoing process during every winter since 2002. While before the formation of the reserve, the area was a vast wilderness with abundant small and larger game, since 2002 a number of locally extinct species have been reintroduced. This includes some of the more visible plains game like Impala, Zebra, Blue Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest and Waterbuck. At the same time the gene pools of existing game populations were also replenished in the case of species like Kudu and Warthog.

Game is mainly sourced from other Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency reserves where there is excess stock and is brought in as and when available. Electrification of the existing perimeter game fence is planned to coincide with the reintroduction of bigger game such as Rhino, Elephant and Buffalo.

Three key factors govern the game reintroduction programme:

Firstly, the area falls outside the so called “red line”, which means its game is free form diseases such as foot and mouth, corridor, animal TB and other game diseases, typically found in Kruger National Park and adjoining big game areas in South Africa and most game reserves outside South Africa. This in turn means that the game can be traded commercially. The live game market is a fast growing sector of the economy and thus excess game from Mountainlands will one day be able to pay for the upkeep and improvement of the reserve.

Secondly, because of above and the stated intent of promoting the reserve as a hub for the outdoor enthusiast and family orientated leisure activities, a policy was adopted not to reintroduce lion to the reserve. While other dangerous game such as rhino and elephant will again be present their distribution and behaviour is predictable and more compatible with human activities.

Thirdly, due to the varied and mountainous terrain it is not feasible to conduct conventional aerial game counts. As there was also significant game present upon formation of the reserve the actual numbers of game are not known. Management of the game and determination of stocking and take-off rate and species composition are therefore determined through the impacts of game on the different habitat types rather than conventional numbers based management.

Visitors can now once more experience Africa’s true splendour with the magnificent scenery and spectacular waterfalls of Mountainlands as the backdrop to herds of big game.

For a list of known game and other mammals found on Mountainlands, download Mammal List PDF…