African
Eye News Service (Nelspruit)
June 19, 2003
Sharon Hammond
Skukuza
The Kruger National Park's game capture
team is gearing up for another huge animal translocation programme
as part of the Great
Limpopo
Transfrontier Park (GLTP) initiative.
More than 1 000 animals like
giraffe, impala, wildebeest, zebra and waterbuck will be captured
from now until August and moved to the
35 000 hectare animal sanctuary in the Limpopo National Park (LNP)
in Mozambique.
This massive translocation exercise
will culminate in four families of about 40 elephants being moved
to the LNP in
the first week of
September to coincide with the World Parks Congress (WPC), which
will be held in Durban.
One elephant family will also be captured
and moved to coincide with the African Union Summit on July 6.
Head of the game capture team,
Dr Markus Hofmeyr, says any animals such as rhino or elephant found
outside the LNP sanctuary will also
be caught and put in the fenced area for their safety.
Animal translocation
from the Kruger to the LNP began in 2001 when the first group of
elephants were translocated.
The speed of the translocations
is important because the sooner the animals are translocated, the
sooner their numbers will start increasing
naturally to populate the envisioned GLTP.
South Africa's President
Thabo Mbeki, Mozambican President Joachim Chissano and Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe signed the treaty
for the establishment of the GLTP on December 9, 2002 in Xai-Xai,
Mozambique.
The GLTP comprises the LNP in Mozambique,
the Kruger and Makuleke Contractual Area in South Africa, and the
Sengwe Corridor,
Gonarezhou
National Park, Malipati Safari Area and Manjinji Pan Sanctuary
in Zimbabwe.
Fences will be dropped between the
countries to create what will be the world's largest conservation
area.
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