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thanks Imberbe

Where is Welgevonden in relation to Marakele? Is it N/S/E/W of the large or the small part of the park?

I wondered the same thing. Have a look here.

Thanks for the pointer to the map Arks.

Just to explain the map:

Marakele National Park is the area in dark green. The smaller area (Kwaggasvlakte) is on the bottom left hand side, and is separated from the larger (mountain) area by a public road (and thus fences). There are plans to try and close this road, but this will probably take ages. In the mean time there is the possibility to connect the two pieces with a subway beneath the road.

The light green area at the top (North) of Marakele is known as Marakele PTY Ltd. It is a contractual park. This briefly means that it is managed apart from Marakele NP, but there are no fences between them. Ecologically it is thus united. The farms in this area was bought by a private Dutch investor. This was done in collaberation with SANParks. Their agreement is that this person will erect luxury lodges in the Marakele PTY area. In 30 years time the whole of Marakele PTY Ltd. will become the property of SANParks and become part of Marakele NP proper.

Currently Marakele consist of around 67 000 hectares.

The light green area to the right (east) of Marakele NP is Welgevonden. This is a private nature reserve.

There will be positives and negatives from joining the 2 bits. The negative will be that the campsite will have to be fenced. The 2nd nicest part of Marakele is sitting in an unfenced campsite watching rhino at the waterhole. (The nicest part is watching the vultures.)



There have been a lot of negative comments about concessions and private partnerships in other parts of the forum. For Kruger, it was probably the wrong way to go. For other developing parks, I think it is the only way to go.

Something very interesting I picked up:

"There has been some discussion on the feasibility of creating a Bushveld National Park: a string of reserves exists from Madikwe in the west, through Silent Valley, Thaba Tholo, Marekele, Welgevonden, Mokholo, Kwalata, and Touchstone to Lapalala Wilderness in the east.
Consolidation, involving the incorporation of a number of intervening "farms" would result in a vast 10 000 sq km reserve of international importance. Marekele and Welgevonden would be situated in the very middle. Whilst the implementation of grand visions of this type can be notoriously slow, the impact on future land values is obvious."

I wonder whats going on there - or is this a red herring?

I have heard a rumour that the whole population of wild dog in Marakele has been captured and moved to an area in Kruger which would be more suited.

Apparently this is because the wild dog kept on breaking out of Marakele. Quite a few of them had previously been shot outside the park.

Can anybody confirm this?

Hi Imberbe, look in this thread African Wild Dog. The Post of KNP Spokesman from Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:01 pm could be a part of the answer.

There was a report on the news on the radio about this last week. All the Marakele WD have indeed been moved from Marakele to Kruger. Aparently they had to move them as they were causing problems with the Park's neighbours.

Same happened to a private park we visited this year. One of the problems with WD is that they need a big area to roam and to hunt. And most private reserves and places like Marakele just seem to be to small

Where did the Marakele dogs originte from? Is it a different genepool to Kruger or not?

It's amazing what you can find on this site.
Have a look at this pdf.

I wonder if Lynne Shaw, the Wild Dog researcher based at Marakele National Park will have moved as well.... It's "her" pack.
And a bit Dutch, the pack had been introduced at official opening of the Park on 28th August, 2003 with dignitaries such as our own Nelson Mandela and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands present.

The wild dogs were released last friday near the Shingwedzi river.

This is really sad, because the more Wild Dog populations the country has the better the survival of this seriously endangered animal, Addo will soon have a pack of Wild Dogs, which I'm sure that that population will be doing very good in the future.

Why is that sad? You should be