Managing land that doesn’t stop at a fence line
Mthimkulu Game Reserve sits within the Greater Kruger National Park, 6500 hectares of bushveld bordering the wider Kruger ecosystem. The reserve is currently undergoing ecological restoration: work aimed at reversing years of poaching pressure, overgrazing, and unmanaged land use, and rebuilding it as a functioning part of the landscape around it.
That connection to Kruger isn’t just geographic. Mthimkulu forms part of a wildlife corridor that lets animals move freely between reserves, and that connectivity shapes almost every decision about how the land is managed. We asked Anna Knowles, one of the scientists leading our research at Mthimkulu, to explain what a wildlife corridor actually means in practice, and what it takes to manage a reserve that doesn’t have hard edges.
Images by Linda Hermans
What a wildlife corridor is
“A wildlife corridor is essentially a connected area of habitat that allows animals to move between different parts of the landscape that have been fragmented or disconnected in some way, be it by natural geographical features or human influences such as roads or development. Animals do not recognise reserve boundaries in the same way we do so maintaining connectivity is extremely important.
For a reserve like Mthimkulu being part of a larger connected landscape means animals can move between areas in response to food, water, breeding opportunities, seasonal conditions and disturbance. Connectivity also helps maintain genetic diversity and allows wildlife populations to function as part of a much larger ecosystem rather than becoming isolated.”
Managing a reserve without hard edges
“Being part of a larger open system is incredibly valuable from an ecological perspective, but it also makes management more complicated. Wildlife does not recognise our reserve boundaries, so animals are constantly moving in and out depending on food, water, breeding, disturbance and other factors. That means what we observe on Mthimkulu can sometimes be influenced by what is happening outside the reserve as well. There are also pressures that don’t stop at a boundary. Things like roads, neighbouring land use, human activity, fire, water availability and other environmental changes can all influence how wildlife moves through the landscape and how the ecosystem functions.
All this means we have to be realistic about what we can control. We can manage and monitor what is happening within Mthimkulu, but we can’t control every factor affecting the wider landscape. That’s where collaboration becomes really important; understanding how the reserve fits into the larger landscape, sharing information and working with neighbouring landowners and conservation organisations can help us make better decisions within the reserve. In some ways, the challenge is that you have to think beyond the boundaries of the reserve. You can’t look at Mthimkulu as an isolated piece of land when the animals and ecological processes we’re trying to understand are operating across a much larger landscape.”
A Research Base Within the Reserve
None of this connectivity work happens on its own. We run our own base inside Mthimkulu, with a permanent research team living and working on the reserve year round. Every wildlife sighting logged and every movement pattern tracked adds to the picture Anna and her team are building of how Mthimkulu fits into the landscape around it.
Our wildlife conservation and ecological research program puts international volunteers into that same fieldwork, tracking the wildlife that moves through the reserve and contributing to the data that shapes how it’s managed.
