"Greatest animal kingdom" takes shape in Africa
Copyright 2001 Reuters
October 5, 2001
Story by Ed Stoddard
KOSTINI, Mozambique - South Africa is carrying out the greatest transfer of wildlife the world has seen in 50 years to create the world's greatest game park.
It is transferring 1,000 elephants from the famed Kruger National Park into neighbouring Mozambique under a project to create a 35,000 sq km (13,510 miles) trans-frontier wildlife park.
The new park, straddling the frontiers of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, will be "the world's greatest animal kingdom," South African officials say.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela welcomed a group of seven elephants into Mozambique yesterday, among the first of the 1,000 elephants to be transferred across the border.
He symbolically opened a border gate and the elephants, including several young, were ferried across in a flat-bed truck.
The animals were captured in the morning and driven 1.5 kms to an enclosed area in Mozambique where they will get used to their surroundings before entering the wild.
A total of 23 elephants have been transferred so far under a programme to move 1,000 animals from Kruger to the Mozambican side of the park in the next two to three years.
It is the largest transfer of wildlife since thousands of animals were moved to make way for Zimbabwe's Kariba dam in the 1960s.
The Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou (GKG) transfrontier park will also include the Kruger Park and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou Park, making it the first contiguous park straddling three countries.
GREATEST ANIMAL KINGDOM
South African Environment and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa said: "The creation of the great Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou transfrontier park is the most significant conservation project in the world today...This will truly be the world's greatest animal kingdom".
The entire 350-km long fence along Kruger Park's eastern border with Mozambique will eventually be taken down.
Officials say the park will be a reality when there is free movement of tourists and animals across the borders, which they hope to accomplish in 2003.
The relocation will ease the pressure on Kruger's 9,000-plus elephant population, which many scientists say has reached its capacity given the available habitat in the Israeli-sized park.
Before the relocation plan, conservation authorities had considered culling the elephant population - a move fiercely opposed by animal welfare groups.
Kruger Park is home to a huge variety of wildlife including the famous Big Five group of mammals - elephants, rhinos, buffalo, lions and leopards - once coveted prey for hunters and now sought after by camera-toting tourists.
The trans-frontier park is expected to bring huge economic benefits to Mozambique by boosting the job-generating eco-tourism sector.
Mozambique had one of the world's fastest-growing economies before it was hit last year by devastating floods and it remains one of the world's poorest countries.