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Gazankulu Homeland, South Africa Lithograph Answers What is being preserved in this park? Kruger National Park is a wildlife refuge, space for native animals to be safe from hunting. Mammals protected by the park include buffalo and zebras, elephants and rhinoceros, giraffes, hippopotamus, antelope and impala, and cheetahs, leopards, and lions. The park is also home to a variety of reptiles, amphibians, and birds; including crocodiles, stork, and eagles. Native plants also find a refuge there, as the South African Parks Authority has undertaken to remove all foreign plant life from the park. What are the livelihoods of people in this area? This is a rural area, and the people here raise livestock. The bare patches where the herds graze are visible, and show (by their absence) where the reserve's boundaries lie. Why are the edges so straight? In some parts of South Africa, fires known as controlled burns are set to reduce the load of fire fuel (dry grass, downed trees, undergrowth) in a given area. A common practice in wilderness firefighting is to create fire breaks--areas where vegetation has been bulldozed away, depriving a fire of fuel to spread through. In setting controlled burns, this is often done first to prevent the fire from escaping the designated burn area. Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem, but unchecked fires can sometimes cause damage to important or fragile areas, as when fires approach population centers or wildlife refuges. Especially after wet winters, the dry heat of South African summers leads to a high fire hazard; large fires can also lead to increased erosion and even flooding during the following rainy season, as the plants that acted as ground cover (holding down the topsoil) have been burned away. View the lithograph (pdf). |
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