Our uniquely Cape endemic equine
Gondwana Game Reserve is proud to be custodian of Cape mountain zebra and Rau quagga. Rau quagga are plains zebra selected for a recovered coat pattern. They stand on the reserve as living grazers. They are not a return of an extinct form. Our Cape mountain zebra, spared from extinction by a narrow margin, endured a tumultuous previous three centuries. They once roamed widely across the mountainous and undulating terrain of the Western and Eastern Cape. By the mid twentieth century only small remnant groups survived in the most inaccessible parts of their range.
A species on the brink
As a direct result of hunting and habitat loss due to livestock farming, Cape mountain zebra lost much of their historic range and the future of their species seemed dire. What remained of their former abundance had been reduced to three isolated mountainous areas. These populations survived in what was to become the Gamkaberg Nature Reserve and Kammanassie Nature Reserve in the Western Cape and the Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape. The two Western Cape relict populations persisted in relative close proximity to Gondwana Game Reserve, with Gamkaberg only 26 kilometres due north as the crow flies.
Since those early days, concerted conservation action widened distribution. The residual effects of a genetic bottleneck still loom as a threat to long-term survival. Of the three surviving original relict populations, only the Mountain Zebra National Park population at the Grassland and Nama-Karoo ecotone did well under a formally protected conservation area, while the Gamkaberg and Kammanassie populations struggled over the years.
A notable setback was a poaching incident in 1974 at Gamkaberg that left that population severely reduced. Continued threats to these two Western Cape relict populations include suboptimal habitat, habitat fragmentation, moribund vegetation and lack of grass regeneration due to the exclusion of fire and severe inbreeding depression leading to genetic drift. Until as recently as 2021 the Gamkaberg genetic stock remained isolated on that mountain, but has subsequently been introduced to another private reserve in the Little Karoo through a stallion that has successfully produced progeny with a mare of Mountain Zebra National Park origin.
Overall the Cape mountain zebra survives today in genetically depauperate and isolated populations that are threatened by small sub-population sizes, habitat fragmentation and hybridisation with other equine species.
A future on Gondwana
Despite their name, Cape mountain zebra were by no means restricted to the mountains. Before seeking refuge from the pressures of settling humanity in the most inaccessible mountainous terrain, our endemic Cape mountain zebra enjoyed the freedom to traverse the landscape between mountain and lowland in search of prime grazing grounds. These altitudinal movements played an important role in their life cycle, until habitat fragmentation in the form of livestock fences prohibited their return to the favourable nutrient-rich lowlands. In our attempt to rewild and restore the Cape wilderness, Gondwana Game Reserve joined the concerted conservation efforts by reintroducing Cape mountain zebra, in effect a human-assisted migration, to their former haunts on Gondwana. Our herd arrived in 2016 after a long journey from the Tsolwana Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape, themselves being of the Mountain Zebra National Park population.
Our animals have settled well on the reserve in the Special Protected Area and favour reclaimed agricultural fields that have naturally converted to novel grasslands. These landscapes have been postulated to be very similar to the natural habitat that dominated our area during the late Pleistocene, when grasslands were widespread in the southern Cape and supported Cape mountain zebra along with other grazers. In the Protected Area today, where guests walk and ride eBikes, bontebok share that grazing story with Cape mountain zebra. Historic companions on the wider Cape plains also included blue antelope, as well as roan antelope, waterbuck, common reedbuck and Cape buffalo.
Moving forward we are dedicated to seeing our Gondwana herd established with Gamkaberg mountain zebra genetics through the addition of stallions from our closest relict population, securing the continued survival of our very own uniquely Cape endemic equine.