African Wildlife & Environment Issue 77 FINAL ISSUE

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

Locally we recognise two basic veld-types when it comes to the quality of the forage available for grazing. These are 'sweet' and 'sour' veld. In sweet veld the protein content of the herbage remains protein-rich even when the grasses are tinder dry (=hay). In sour veld the quality of the grazing is only protein-rich for a few months following a winter and/or spring burn (=straw). Rangeland farmers also recognise that these two extreme types of vegetation require different management strategies – sweet veld only requires burning infrequently, while sour veld should ideally be burned annually (or at least biennially). The managers in the Kruger National Park are beginning to understand that the grasslands and savannas of the northern plains on basalt don’t need fire (sweet veld) but the eastern savannas on the granites and Ecca sediments do (sour veld). Mopane is somewhere in between.

This while big males trundle off to the nutrient poor Mopane woodlands for their socialising. AND by the way – the gut of a male elephant is significantly longer than that of the female - so males are able to extract more nutrients from their lower quality Mopane diet, because the food stays in the gut for longer. So, it seems female elephants are equivalent to the Greywings and males to Redwings. What does all this have to do with heathland vegetation here in South Africa? Am I proposing that the grasslands on the Karoo sediments in the Drakensberg, and the Mopane woodland in Kruger are heathlands? Well maybe I am hinting at that, and here is the basis of my argument - and to make this more palatable to you the reader, let me start with a concept all rangeland ecologists understand.

The view from the top of Mariepskop looking over the quartzite plateau below dotted with Protea caffra (Highveld protea). Note the Afromontane Forest on the steep slopes below the cliffs

33 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 77 (2020)