Table mountain national park, South Africa

While relatively small at only 85 square miles or 221 square kilometres, due to its proximity to Cape town it is one of the most visited national parks in South Africa.

A surprisingly large variety of wildlife is found there, given the size of the reserve. Apart from a sizable and growing colony of African penguins, there is also bontebok antelope, and a large population of baboons. Other species include rock dassies (hyrax), porcupines, mongoose, snakes, lizards, tortoise and a rare species called the table mountain ghost frog which is only found here. While once a big 5 reserve, only the leopard is ever present, and this is only an occasional visit by the roaming cape leopard. The current apex predator is the Caracal, which is a relatively small cat when compared to the Leopard.

Other than this the retrogresses and a handful of wild ostrich. During the meeting season between August and October it also can be a good place to watch southern right whales which come here to breed.

Around the planet, humans kill vast numbers of wildlife and we have pushed many to extinction.

Something we need to remember, is that we are not the only dangerous thing on earth. We need to allow each species to be able to cope with natural deaths that occur from elsewhere.

This event from a few months ago is a case in point. African penguins and African bees are both native species. It is unclear as to what caused this mass stinging event, but it is thought to be a fluke and not likely to be repeated.

While not thought of as an African species, penguins to still live in South Africa,

There are only thought to be a little more than 10,000 penguins left in South Africa, so we must watch that this does not become common, as it could push an already stressed population out of existence.

Tag: African Penguins

aaa Table mountain national park, South Africa

Table mountain national park, South Africa

Bees killed 63 endangered penguins in south Africa