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Update: Watch Makalali on NationalGeographic.com
January 2008:
A glimpse into South Africa's private lands conservation
Unlike most areas in the world where wildlife is being crowded out 
by development and increasing human populations, South Africa has actually expanded its green frontier. Diane just returned from a month working at two private reserves. Makalali Game
Reserve near the famed Kruger National Park, is a pioneer in ecotourism as well as conservation research. Its core mission is biodiversity protection.
Kariega Game Reserve in the eastern cape is a younger smaller reserve that has more challenges in balancing tourism and nature.
Conservation's rise dates to the fall of apartheid in the early 1990s, when visitors started flocking again to this vast and beautiful country, often drawn by the allure of the safari. Landowners responded by converting cattle ranches to nature reserves, allowing forests and bush to recover and reintroducing native animals such as zebra, giraffe, impala and elephant as well as the big predators such as lion and cheetah. In South Africa, conservation has become more profitable than cattle ranching. In fact, more land is in private conservation (9%) than publicly protected (6%). Here's a glimpse...
Makalali's elephants were relocated from nearby Kruger National Park, which is wrestling with a booming population. The park in 1994 halted the practice of culling, or killing
excess elephants, after an international outcry, but the government may resume the controversial practice this year.
Makalali has become a pioneer in elephant contraception and hopes its research will offer solutions to other
reserves to prevent future culling and ensure that these giants don't outstrip the land's capacity.
Elephants can eat 300-600 pounds a day and alter landscapes by knocking down large trees to get at leaves, bark and roots.
Makalali has grown dramatically since its founding in 1994 and now includes five parcels that total 95 square miles,
making it about three times the size of Manhattan. The five landowners formed the larger conservancy by pooling resources and removing fences.
Now wildlife, including these wildebeest, have a wider
area to roam. The reserve is set to buy more land this year.
Less than 24 hours after three hyenas killed this adult kudu, little is left. When the hyenas finished, vultures
descended and cleaned the carcass. Hyena and leopard both roam where they wish, unconfined by the fences that define the reserve's
borders and that stop
lion, cheetah and most other animals. Hyena can burrow underneath fences and leopard can leap from
treetops.
Just a few years ago, Kariega Game Reserve introduced four lions, the only large predators on the small reserve.
Now it is expanding with the purchase of a neighboring cattle ranch. The cattle have been sold and impala,
zebra and other wild animals will be introduced. Predators such as lion may follow only after these grazers
have a chance to increase their numbers.
In the wild, rhino and other animals choose to breed freely. But in small reserves, such as Kariega, larger
animals are sometimes captured and sold for breeding to other reserves to ensure genetic diversity. Moving a two-ton
rhino means tranquilizing it, covering its eyes to reduce stress, and then, while groggy, guiding it with ropes
into a waiting truck. Handled incorrectly, animals can die from the stress. This male rhino arrived safely.