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Hyenas in the Addo Elephant National Park

Did you know that the Addo Elephant National Park has both Brown Hyena and Spotted Hyena?

📸 @sanparks

The brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea), also called the strandwolf, is the only extant species in the genus Parahyaena. It is currently the rarest species of hyena. Brown hyenas are distinguished from other species by their long shaggy dark brown coat, pointed ears, and short tail. They are generally scavengers, eating mammal remains, fruit, insects, and reptiles.

📸 @luke_wildlifephotographysa

Brown hyenas, while historically present, were eradicated in the early 1900s but around 2008 were been sighted again, especially in the Colchester (southern) area of the park.

The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus Crocuta. The spotted hyena is a highly successful animal, being the most common large carnivore in Africa. Its success is due in part to its adaptability and opportunism; it is primarily a hunter but may also scavenge, with the capacity to eat and digest skin, bone and other animal waste.

📸 @lulainafrica

📸 @pete_leyland

Spotted hyenas were reintroduced to the park in 2003 and 2004 after an absence of over 100 years.

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Source: Addotourism.co.za.

How big is the Greater Addo Elephant National Park

Addo Elephant National Park is the third-largest national park in South Africa. It’s not only home to the traditional Big Five (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard) but the Big 7, which includes the Southern right whale and Great white shark in its marine environment.

In 1931, the park was started with only 2500 hectares of land. Today the Greater Addo National Park covers 180,000 hectares of land and a 120,000 hectare marine protected area (MPA). The park stretches from Darlington Dam in the Karoo in the north, across to the Zuurberg Mountains in the south, through the game viewing area and down to the coast at the Sundays River Mouth. From here, it stretches along the coast through the Alexandria Dune Fields and Woody Cape to Cannon Rocks with another small section near the Bushmans River Mouth.

The MPA extends 80 km eastward from the Coega harbour in Algoa Bay and includes the estuary of the Sundays River. The St. Croix and Bird Island groups fall within the MPA. The MPA includes the seabed and the water above it.

The map is to show the size of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park and where all the areas are, but may be slightly out of date.

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Source: Addotourism.co.za.

St Croix Island

St. Croix Island is the largest of the three islands on the western side of Algoa Bay. It is located within 8 kilometres of the Port of Nqgura and 4km from the nearest land. The islands are of critical importance to sea bird populations, including the endangered African penguin.

The island covers about 12 ha (30 acres) and is only 58 m above sea level at the highest point. It runs 700 m at its longest and 360 m at its broadest.

Bartholomeu Diaz was the first European to sail into Algoa Bay in 1488 on his quest to find the new sea route to the east. They landed on an island which they named Ilheu da Cruz, today known as St Croix. Here they celebrated Mass and erected a wooden cross. A replica of the cross was erected in 1988 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his voyage. The two smaller islets near St. Croix were named Jahleel and Brenton after the British Vice Admiral at the Cape who was stationed there from 1815 until 1821.

Ever since the arrival of the 1820 British Settlers the natural resources of the bay and islands have been ruthlessly exploited. Prior to the settlers, ships from various nations supplemented their rations with eggs and birds from the islands.

In 1891, a Canadian Brig sailed into the bay with a load of passengers, some of whom had the dreaded smallpox disease. They were quarantined on St Croix for three months and hence its alternative name of Hospital Island.

St Croix falls within the Addo Elephant National Park Marine Protected Area (MPA). It used to be home to the biggest population of African Penguins in the world. The population’s modern history peaked in 1993, when 63,000 penguins lived there. Today there is an estimate of 1,350 breeding pairs left.

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Source: Addotourism.co.za.

Major Pretorius’ big elephant hunt

One of the saddest chapters in the history of the Addo elephants involved Major Pretorius’ big hunt of 1919/20.

After nearly 200 years of being hunted for their ivory, there were only about 140 elephants left in the Addo region by the early 1900s. Growth in agriculture in the region led to conflict with elephants as they damaged crops and competed with farmers’ needs for water.

Local farmers put pressure on the government to exterminate the Addo elephants and on 25 November 1919 the Cape Provincial Administration entered into a contractual agreement with the noted big-game hunter and celebrated war hero, Major P J Pretorius, to cull the herd. Major Pretorius set up his camp in Kinkelbos and used various methods while hunting. This included wearing a full leather outfit and taking a ladder along on his hunt to see over the thick Addo bush.

Pretorius and his .475 cordite Express Rifle shot 114 elephants between 1919 and 1920. His activities generated publicity and sympathy for the elephants, prompting the halt of the killing when only 16 Addo Elephants remained.

This then led to the creation of the Addo Elephant National Park in 1931.

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Source: Addotourism.co.za.

“Hapoor” the Elephant

One of the places you’re most likely to find elephants when visiting Addo Elephant National Park is Hapoor Dam. Now you may be wondering who is Hapoor and what the dam has got to do with the magnificent elephant head mounted in the park’s Interpretive Centre.

Hapoor was a legend in the park and Addo’s dominant bull for 24 years. ‘Hap’ means ‘nick’ or ‘hole’ in Afrikaans, while ‘oor’ means ‘ear’ and it is believed the distinctive nick in his ear was caused by a hunter’s bullet. Hapoor retained a deep hatred of humans throughout his life. On more than one occasion park staff were forced to flee to safety when Hapoor made his appearance.

His dominance stretched from 1944 to 1968. During the latter part of the 1960’s a few younger bulls reached maturity and challenged Hapoor. These upstarts were unsuccessful until one bull named Lanky finally deposed Hapoor in 1968.

Hapoor was driven from the heard and became a loner. Later that year he succeeded in climbing the park’s ‘Armstrong Fence’, which for nearly 20 years had been elephant-proof. His freedom was to be short lived as due to his aggressive nature, it was determined he would have to be shot.

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Source: Addotourism.co.za.

Honorary Ranger Field Notes from the 90s

During the late 1990s the Addo Elephant National Park Honorary Rangers has a project where they compiled “Filed Notes” for Elephants, Buffalo, Flightless Dung Beetle, Meerkat and Black Rhino. These field notes were available to visitors and while most just took it out of interest, there were one or two who filed them away as keepsakes. One of those people is Jonker Fourie of Firefly the Travel Guy who just started working as a tourist guide back then.. He recently dug them up and scanned them for us to post on our social media channels and share them with you here on the Addo Tourism website.

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Source: Addotourism.co.za.

No Money to Fix Broken Colchester Clinic, Says Health Department

A mobile clinic parks outside of the Colchester clinic once a week because the building is not suitable to treat patients any longer. The Eastern Cape Department of Health says it would cost millions of rand – which it can’t afford — to refurbish the dilapidated building.

  • The Eastern Cape Department of Health has admitted that the condition at the Colchester clinic is not fit for purpose.
  • Patients complain that the building used for the weekly clinic is falling apart and has no electricity, water and toilets.
  • The department says the weekly mobile clinic is sufficient to treat patients in the community.
  • Department spokesperson, Siyanda Manana says it would cost millions of rand — which it can’t afford — to refurbish the dilapidated building.

The Eastern Cape Department of Health has admitted that the condition at the Colchester clinic is not fit for purpose. But says it would cost millions of rands – which it can’t afford — to refurbish the dilapidated facility.

Colchester is north-east of Gqeberha, near the Addo Elephant National Park. It is part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.

Patients say conditions in the building have been deteriorating and that no maintenance has been done since the Covid lockdown in 2020.

GroundUp visited the clinic in May 2024 after patients complained that the building used for the weekly clinic was falling apart and had no electricity. We found that there were broken windows and holes in the ceiling. There were no lights inside the prefabricated building and no running water, so patients walked to the community hall on the same property to use the toilet.

At the time, the department told GroundUp that the cost of refurbishing the building would be at least R1.7-million, which the department did not have.

We returned to the crumbling prefab structure on Wednesday and found the facility in a worse state. The ceiling had many holes while the windows were badly vandalised. The consulting room can only be opened and closed with a tablespoon being used as a door handle.

When we arrived, there were a handful of patients seated inside the prefab, waiting for nurses to arrive in the mobile clinic. The vehicle usually arrives at 10am, but patients say everyone is not assisted by the time nurses pack up by 3pm. Residents asked why the mobile clinic doesn’t come twice rather than once a week.

Another complaint was their struggle to get ambulances to come to Colchester, especially at night and over weekends. As a result, people have to pay to hire transport or hitchhike to the nearest health facility in Motherwell.

Resident Maria Julyan, who lives about ten minutes from the clinic, says she has to go home to use the toilet. She asked that the department fix the toilets, windows and the water infrastructure.

In a video shared on its WhatsApp group this week, department spokesperson, Siyanda Manana, reiterated that the clinic operated as a satellite clinic once a week with a mobile unit.

“The Colchester clinic operates as a satellite clinic due to the dilapidated state of the building. Assessment of the condition of the infrastructure was carried out by the Nelson Mandela Bay health infrastructure team in 2021. The cost to repair the building was R1.7 million.

“Then the office was unable to proceed due to budget constraints. Another request was made again to the provincial office to renovate the structure, but that did not happen in the 2024 plan because the amount jumped to R3-million, and the condition of the building had worsened,” he said.

The department did not respond to our additional questions by the time of publication.

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Source: MyZA.co.za.