Floods: Here’s how the Kruger National Park wildlife is doing

The economic and environmental toll from January’s floods in the Kruger National Park (KNP) is steadily accumulating. Infrastructure was damaged and park officials are slowly reopening routes and camps after roads and bridges were deemed inaccessible. Concerns continue to be expressed for the wildlife at the KNP, with an expert on the ground relaying that the work of conservationists has been affected.

Multiple organisations monitor the array of wildlife in Kruger, one beingContemplate Wild, a non-profit specialising in the conservation of endangered species and habitats. Shortened from Conservation Technology & Monitoring Platforms, Contemplate Wild has GPS-tagged multiple species, including lions, cheetahs, hyenas and wild dogs. Manager of species monitoring Grant Beverley said that the full scope of the flood’s effect on animals has yet to be determined.

Access for vehicles is still difficult, leaving Beverley to use tagging data to track animal movements. He says that prior to the floods, the movements of the carnivores he tracks were not out of the ordinary, more a cautious gauging of their proximity to the water. Beverley noted that the water levels rose gradually and not in a manner that would place the animals in sudden danger.

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“The fact that it is natural means that the animals are adaptable. They have adapted and survived flooding for years,” he toldThe Citizen. Asked what dangers wildlife could encounter due to the floods, Beverley explained that if the animals found themselves isolated, some may, for example wild dogs, reluctantly attempt to cross rivers. “Because they are forced to cross rivers, there is the threat of predation by crocodiles in particular, which then could be a secondary cause of mortality,” he said.

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