Scientists warn that poaching, drought threaten Kruger lions and hippos:
Poisoning and snaring pose a serious threat to lions, especially in the northern parts of Kruger National Park, according to its scientists.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust and South African National Parks (SANParks) joined forces to individually identify lions, obtain mark-recapture estimates — a method to estimate the size of populations — and to determine the number of prides and their demography.
The results of the survey are in SANParks’ 2023/2024 research report, where scientists Erin Crowhurst, Pauli Viljoen, Marnus Roodbol and Sam Ferreira noted how lions are sought-after by many, including “tourists [who] want a lasting memory, healers are in search of treatments or cures and conservationists want to conserve the species”.
The survey consisted of playing hour-long recordings of a distressed buffalo calf at night at 64 sites in Nxanatseni north. At 13 sites, 41 lions arrived, and at an additional eight sites distant lion vocals were noted.
The team drove 9129km over a period of 90 days, recording 229 lion sightings with a possible 91 individual lions identified and both sides of their faces photographed. “Initial analysis revealed that multiple of the 91 individuals captured were recaptures,” the authors said.
Ninety-four camera traps were placed in the field for 90 days with two cameras at each station to photograph both sides of the face. This included seven individuals that had not previously been identified.
“Comparison of estimates from call-up surveys over time suggest that disruption of the lion populations may have been taking place over a long period. Nevertheless, lions have not decreased between 2015 and 2023,” the authors wrote.
This could be because of the introduction of lions that escaped from southern Kruger, which “may have compensated for the impacts of poisoning and poaching in the far north of Kruger”.
In the past four years 18 lions — eight females and 10 males — were relocated from the south to either Vlakteplaas, Pafuri and the Makuleke Contractual Park in the north, the scientists noted.
Another article in the SANParks research report found that the number of hippos at all six rivers in the Kruger National Park plunged by about 2 500 just before the drought in 2015 to the same time in 2016. The numbers fell by a further 8% in 2017, when the one of the most intense regional droughts on record ended.
Megaherbivores such as elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes and buffaloes once dominated the planet, scientists Robert McCleery, Sam Ferreira, Pauli Viljoen, Danie Pienaar, Cathy Greaver, Philip Mhlava and Obert Mathebula wrote, but now, “a full complement of these large mammals occurs only in African savannas”.
“These species are crucial for providing ecosystem services and fostering biodiversity but are under threat from land use change, over-harvesting and climate change. As the climate changes, we can expect more frequent and intense droughts, which stress most savanna species but have particularly pronounced impacts on water-dependent mammals like the common hippo.”
Among large mammals, hippos are unique in several aspects of their ecology, the authors said. “Hippos are central-point foragers: at night, they leave the water to graze in the surrounding area before returning to the same place. They spend their days in pools of water in social groups or pods, with water important for hydration and to protect their sun-sensitive skin.”
This makes hippos ecologically important and vulnerable to drought. To understand how hippos respond to drought and how they influence the environment and surrounding species, the researchers initiated a long-term study on the hippo population in the Kruger.
This was to investigate how and why hippos respond to droughts by examining changes in their distribution and group sizes.
The Kruger supports about 7 000 hippos, representing one of the largest hippo populations in a single protected area in the world.
The scientists found that before the drought, areas with abundant green vegetation and large pools of water had more hippos than others.
While elephants, rhinos and other megaherbivores often move to areas with greener vegetation during droughts, hippos have a limited ability to migrate long distances because of their territoriality.
“Nonetheless, hippos moved to new areas on Kruger’s rivers and altered their social behaviour in response to the severe drought. These responses, however, appeared less successful in mitigating drought-induced mortality than the responses of other large herbivores that could migrate to less severely affected areas,” the scientists said.
Hippos appear “acutely vulnerable” to competition from other hippos and are unable to find food during prolonged droughts.
“The strong social bonds of hippos and their tendency to form large groups may force them to compete with each other when food is scarce.”
The combined effects of drought-induced declines in surface water because of increased extraction for agricultural and residential use, dams and more variable rainfall cycles associated with climate change, will probably have negative consequences for hippo populations, the researchers said.
The next phase of their research aims to understand how changes in surface water in dams and rivers alters the movements and densities of hippos and other large megaherbivores.
“We seek to better understand the environmental consequences of these changes, specifically how water-induced changes to megaherbivores alter important nutrients, the type and structure of savanna vegetation and biodiversity.”
Lorin Sookool: A provocateur, a storyteller:
The theatre buzzes with anticipation — the familiar hum of pre-show chatter rippling through it.
Ordinarily, the dimming lights and fading music would cue the audience to settle in, a ritual that prepares one for the world about to unfold on stage.
But that night at Artscape, in Cape Town, convention was defied. Lorin Sookool appeared amid the chaos, weaving through the audience, greeting and interacting with people as if she were one of us.
No dramatic spotlight, no gradual hush. Her presence was bold, disarming even.
She claimed the space with a confidence that made you lean in, recalibrate your expectations.
It was a radical departure from tradition, one that effectively shattered the fourth wall before it could even be built.
It was my first time seeing Sookool perform. I had walked in without knowing the context of her craft, without any preconceived notions of what her dance manifests.
But I was grateful for an earlier encounter — a casual lunch with the 2023 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for dance.
It was during this conversation that she revealed the thematic pulse of her double bill: Woza Wenties! and 3 Mense Phakathi.
The former is a solo performance that explores decoloniality through an intensely personal lens. The latter, a group choreography, challenges power struggles and dynamics within the South African context.
“It’s about the ongoing undoing of colonisation,” she explained, her voice steady with conviction.
I latched onto that phrase, curious to see how she would embody such complexity through movement.
But it was more than just a thematic exploration. Sookool spoke about the process of choreographing such a double bill, describing it as an intuitive journey.
“Everyone who is part of the show comes as themselves all the time,” she said.
The dancers echoed this, emphasising how they had been encouraged to bring their authentic selves into the space.
“We were allowed to evolve, and that was okay, because we don’t bring our same selves to the world everyday anyway,” one of them shared.
This approach became evident the moment Sookool took to the stage. She was bare, vulnerable, yet commanding.
Her movements were fluid, navigating the dimensions of time and memory. Each gesture was heavy with narrative, her body becoming an archive excavating histories buried beneath layers of colonial conditioning.
In Woza Wenties!, Sookool’s solo became a powerful act of resistance. She confronted the colonial gaze head-on, using her body to reclaim narrative agency.
Her movements were deliberate, peeling away layers of cultural erasure. She danced as if unearthing fragments of identity that had been strategically concealed or lost.
Then, mid-performance, a familiar sound punctuated the air — 144 in Tinsimu Ta Vakriste, from a collection of Christian hymns.
It reverberated through the theatre, pulling at threads of memory and identity.
It was intimately familiar, echoing the cadences of my own heritage. In that instant, the choreography’s messaging crystallised.
The hymn’s presence was not incidental. It spoke of redemption, but of whose redemption was it singing?
In this context, the question hung heavy. By invoking a religious tradition tied to colonial history, Sookool exposed the contradictions within imposed identities.
The hymn, a symbol of colonial religious indoctrination, was repurposed, its narrative reframed.
Through her body and the hymn, Sookool crafted a potent commentary on colonisation’s many faces.
She confronted the ways it has stripped us of our identity, compelling us to conceal who we truly are.
Her performance was not just a dance; it was a dialogue, a confrontation with history.
But Woza Wenties! was just the beginning. The evening continued with 3 Mense Phakathi, a group performance that I can only describe as complex, even unsettling.
Sookool’s choreographic intent became even more provocative. Where Woza Wenties! was deeply personal, 3 Mense Phakathi was unapologetically political.
It tackled power dynamics and social hierarchies, interrogating the legacies of colonialism that persist in contemporary South Africa.
But this was no didactic lecture. It was layered, abstract, refusing to be easily interpreted. I have to be honest — it was difficult.
Sookool had told me, “I want you to come with no expectations at all,” and I did.
Yet, the piece challenged me to build and absorb multiple narratives — perspectives that I perhaps misinterpreted.
It was not a comfortable experience. At one point, the dancers engaged in a series of confrontations, their bodies colliding, entangling, resisting.
The movements were frenetic, almost chaotic, but there was a rhythm to the disorder.
It felt like a physical manifestation of power struggles, of contested identities. The complexity of 3?Mense Phakathi was intentional.
Sookool’s choreography does not provide answers; it asks difficult questions. The performance refused to be neatly packaged or resolved.
It was confrontational, challenging the audience to grapple with its themes, long after the final bow.
This is rare in contemporary South African dance, where narratives are often made palatable for broader audiences.
Sookool defies this expectation. She provokes, questions, disrupts. She does not entertain; she interrogates.
After the performance, there was an opportunity to engage with Sookool, to ask her questions about her work.
But even this conversation was layered, complex. The audience struggled to articulate what they had just seen, a testament to the depth of her interrogation.
This is not a criticism. On the contrary, it speaks to Sookool’s power as a storyteller. In a landscape where art is often expected to provide easy answers, she forces us to confront our own discomfort.
She is fully aware of this.
“I feel like we need to talk more as practitioners and do so critically,” she said.
“I was deliberate in inviting dance humans from all the little factions of dance — there are theatre humans, thinkers, and writers.
“We are all dealing with the same things and are creatives and makers in South Africa.
“I am aware that I am doing a thing that might be perhaps a bit odd, so I want to open it up and get us talking.”
Her words stayed with me. It became clear that 3 Mense Phakathi was not about providing a neatly packaged narrative.
It was about questioning the very structures that shape our identities, the power dynamics we navigate daily. It was about discomfort, about confronting what we often prefer to leave unspoken.
As the lights dimmed at the end of the performance and the applause erupted, I remained seated, grappling with the boldness of her interrogation.
Sookool had not just performed; she had started a conversation that refused to end with the curtain fall.
I walked out of the theatre with more questions than answers, unsettled yet inspired.
And maybe that’s the point. Sookool does not offer resolution; she offers a mirror — a reflection of our complexities, our histories, our ongoing journey of decoloniality.
She is not merely a performer. She is a provocateur, a storyteller who dances at the intersections of memory, identity and power.
And as I stepped out into the night, her words echoed once more,
“It is an ongoing practice and an ongoing rehearsal.” Indeed, the work is never truly finished.
EU backs South Africa as Trump increases pressure:
The European Union’s representatives in South Africa have issued a message of solidarity as the country tries to shore up international support amid an escalating crisis with Washington.
The ambassadors of France, Germany and Italy and the EU’s deputy ambassador posted a one-minute video clip on X late on Tuesday, in which they stressed that they shared South Africa’s commitment to constitutionalism and multi-lateralism.
“We have many parallels between the European Union and South Africa,” German ambassador Andreas Pesche says, speaking from a function in Pretoria hosted under the theme “United in Diversity”.
Italian ambassador Alberto Vecchi added: “Like you, we are committed to multi-lateralism, rule-based international order and more equity and justice in the world.”
His French counterpart, David Martinon, said France, like South Africa, believed in equality and other constitutional rights.
“Just like you, we love our constitutional rights and protections, and we do believe in a non-racial, non-sexist democracy.”
The EU’s deputy ambassador to Pretoria, Pencho Garrido Ruiz, said the bloc and his host country shared a belief in solidarity, equality and sustainability — values that underpin South Africa’s agenda for its year-long G20 presidency.
“You can rely on the European Union during the G20 this year, during 2025, and beyond,” he added.
The ambassadors recorded the message four days after US President Donald Trump signed a decree suspending all donor funding to South Africa as a sanction for what he termed racial oppression and support for “reinvigorating relations with Iran to develop military, and nuclear arrangements”.
In a so-called fact sheet published last Friday, the White House linked the presidential decree to South Africa’s stance on the conflict in the Gaza and its decision to accuse Israel of genocide in the enclave in a landmark case before the International Court of Justice. “Merely two months after the October 7th terrorist attacks on Israel, South Africa accused Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice.”
At a White House media briefing on Tuesday, Trump deflected a question as to whether he would attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November before again suggesting that certain population groups in South Africa face persecution and land dispossession.
“Let’s see what happens, but the South African situation is very, very dangerous and very bad for a lot of people,” he said.
“There is tremendously bad things going on, including the confiscation of property and worse, much worse than that. You know what I’m talking about.”
The White House has seized upon the Expropriation Act signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa last month as proof of white Afrikaner lobby groups’ long-standing complaint of racial discrimination in post-apartheid South Africa.
The new law is not designed to enable land redistribution, and the presidency has repeatedly said Trump’s attack is based on misinformation.
Ramaphosa is assembling a delegation to dispatch to Washington to prevent further fallout, after making plain last week in his State of the Nation address that South Africa will “not be bullied” into revising its domestic or foreign policy.
The mission will also travel to other capitals to shore up support, including for its G20 programme.
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