 Reference Base  The large mammals of the Kruger National Park: their dist... |
|
Pienaar, U. de V., 1963. The large mammals of the Kruger National Park: their distribution and present-day status. Koedoe 6: 1-37
|
|
|
|
| |
| Location: |
Africa - Southern Africa - South Africa |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
 |
|
|
The only large mammalian species which became extinct in the Eastern Transvaal lowveld during historical times, not at present represented in the fauna of the Kruger National Park. The last living specimen was seen by ex-ranger Kirkman along the Nwatiwambo spruit in the famous Nwatimhiri bush east of Skukuza during October 1936. Formerly these great beasts roamed throughout the whole of the Low country east of the Drakensberg escarpment and according to Vaughan-Kirby (1 896) were particularly abundant in the Nwatimhiri bush, the Gomondwane thickets, along the Timbavati river and the Nyandu bush on the eastern boundary north of Shingwidzi. The indiscriminate slaughter and persecution by hunters during the latter half of the 19th century reduced their numbers to the brink of extinction. Three were reported soon after the proclamation of the Shingwidzi Reserve in 1903 along the headwaters of the Tsende River and during the 1920's solitary specimens were seen on the Lebombos south-east of Tshokwane and along the Bubube River in the north. These were the last of the few however, and even the last survivors in the Nwatimhiri bush had disappeared forever by 1945.
|
|
|
File available
details
Original text on this topic: