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Introduction For me as a small and insignificant Afrikaans speaking South African, to try and show what beautiful wildlife there is in South Africa, is going to be very difficult but I'll try my very best. There are still plenty of wildlife around and I can see at least 6 species of antelope just outside Middelburg, Mpumalanga, the town I am staying in. I have always been fascinated by animals and there is nothing more relaxing than game viewing and hunting. Apart from the so-called "Big Five" - lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and the buffalo there are many other species just as important and interesting to look at. Did you know that, according to my resources, 338 species of mammals, 900 bird species, 50 snake species, over 100 000 insect species and more than 70 shark, ray and manta species, not mentioning the hundreds of other fish species, inhabit Southern Africa and the coastal areas surrounding it? Furthermore, our National Parks cover an area of 2 971 541 hectares. We have approximately 70 provincial nature reserves, covering an area of 400 000 hectares and the South African National Defense Force regards conservation as very important and control some 450 000 hectares. In total, a area of about 5,7 million hectares or 5,2 percent of the surface area of our country is devoted to conservation.Farmers who control by far the largest portion of privately owned land, increasingly realize the potential of game farming and conservation. Many of them nowadays combine their traditional farming with game farming resulting in many small game parks where one can still hunt and enjoy the great outdoors. However, a large portion of these farmers only caters for the American and European tourists because the average South African people are simply too poor to afford the ridiculous prices they charge to hunt and stay at their exclusive farms. "Eco-Tourism" is on the increase in South Africa and we take pride in what we have to offer. Did you know that for every eight tourists that visit South Africa one job is created for a South African? I can only mention that we have literally hundreds or even thousands of different plant species too but I do not know a lot about them and therefore cannot say much about them... Now go to the "What is a Mammal?" section in the links to the right to start exploring the wonderful animals that you can see in South Africa. However, if you want to go directly to the animal pages click on "Classification of mammals". |
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