All internal fences have now disappeared in Gondwana Cañon Park. The last section of 15 km of fencing along the public road near Holoog was taken down in January. In total, 500 km of fences have been removed. They were a relic from earlier farming activities. Foraging game needs to be able to move around as freely as possible in order to survive. The park is situated in the Nama Karoo Desert where rainfall usually is scarce and scattered. Since its inception in 1995 only game species which once were indigenous to the region were reintroduced to the 1,260 km² nature conservation area, among them hartebeest, wildebeest and plains zebra.

This year, however, game animals find more than enough food almost everywhere. In January 25.1 mm of rain (monthly average 19.9 mm) were recorded and in February 61.5 mm (31.2 mm). All of the park’s seasonal (mostly dry) rivers were in flood at some stage. Everything is sprouting and blooming now, the game is well-fed. In January the park rangers watched a herd of 140 springbok grazing in the grassy plains. The camera traps at Jagpos and Jakkalsdam took pictures of two leopards.

Park Administration also reported three bird species which so far have not been seen in this part of the country: the cardinal woodpecker, the Kalahari shrub robin and the yellow-billed oxpecker. The latter normally occurs only in the furthest north of the country. The rare bird was spotted on the back of a horse at Cañon Lodge.

In the southern reaches of Gondwana Cañon Park a plant of the species Zygophyllum rigidum was seen for the first time, and an Ana tree was discovered in the !Gâb River. In Namibia, Ana trees are mostly found in the northern and central parts, especially in the sandy riverbeds heading west. The Ana tree in the !Gâb Rivier is probably the most southern one in Namibia so far. The seed was either washed up in previous years or it got there in the dung of small livestock which was brought to the south from other parts of Namibia. Ana tree seedlings are now being grown in the Holoog nursery for indigenous plants.

Camel thorn trees, buffalo thorn, African Jerusalem thorn, the yellow-flowering shrub Haematoxylum dinteri and of course quiver trees (Aloe dichotoma) are among the other trees available there. A batch of 40 quiver trees was delivered to Cañon Village recently to grace the surroundings of the lodge.

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