Mountain Zebra National Park

Mountain Zebra National Park, located in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, was created in July 1937 as a sanctuary for the endangered Cape mountain zebra. The park sits within the 896,146-hectare Mountain Zebra-Camdeboo Protected Environment. Its history is a story of near-total loss and slow recovery. In the early 1930s, the Cape mountain zebra faced extinction.

History

The National Parks Board of Trustees set aside a 17.12-square-kilometer area for their protection in 1938, after purchasing the farm Babylons Toren near Cradock the year before. At that point, the park held only five stallions and one mare—too few to grow the population. By 1950, just two stallions remained.

A neighboring farmer, H L Lombard, then donated eleven zebras (five stallions and six mares), boosting the breeding stock. By 1964, only 25 zebras lived in the park, but the reserve was expanded to 65.36 square kilometers, and Paul Michau donated six more zebras. Numbers then climbed steadily to about 140.

In 1975, zebras were reintroduced to the Western Cape at De Hoop Nature Reserve. Since 1978, capturing and moving mountain zebras to new habitats has been routine park management. As of 2015, the park’s herd exceeded 700 animals, with roughly 20 relocated each year. Over time, additional farms were bought, expanding the park to its current 284 square kilometers.

Fauna

Other common herbivores in the park include springbok, black wildebeest, red hartebeest, common eland, blesbok, mountain reedbuck, gray rhebok, greater kudu, steenbok, and klipspringer. Cape buffalo were brought back in 1998, and gemsbok and southwestern black rhino were reintroduced in 2002. Caracals were the main carnivores until larger predators were reintroduced: Southeast African cheetah in 2007, brown hyenas in 2008, and three lions in 2013. All three species now breed successfully in the park.

Visitor numbers

Tourism infrastructure includes 19 family cottages (76 beds, each unit sleeping four), one swimming pool for overnight guests, a camping terrain with 20 sites (each sleeping up to six), ablution and kitchen facilities at the campsite, one guest house sleeping six, and two overnight huts sleeping ten each, linked to about 39 kilometers of hiking trails. From April 2017 to March 2018, the park received 31,210 visitors, up from 27,965 the previous year—an 11.6% growth rate that placed it among the top five SANParks for year-on-year visitor increase.