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The Elephant Sanctuary Hartbeespoort Dam
The Elephant Sanctuary Hartbeespoort Dam is an elephant sanctuary providing a safe haven and “halfway house” for African elephants. It provides fully guided interactive elephant educational programs covering elephant habits, dynamics, behavior and anatomy. The main focus of the sanctuary is to educate visitors about all aspects of elephants and elephant husbandry, with the vision to release elephants into an environment where they can be more independent. Visitors have the opportunity to touch, feed, walk trunk-in-hand with experienced guides. The sanctuary is situated in indigenous bushveld in the Magaliesberg Mountains in the North West Province of South Africa, 45 km from Johannesburg, 35 km from Pretoria. It is open to the public seven days a week year-round. The Elephant Sanctuary Group The Elephant Sanctuary Group has three operations – at Hartbeespoort Dam near Pretoria, in Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route, and in Hazyview near the Kruger Park. El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magaliesberg
The Magaliesberg (historically also known as ''Macalisberg'' or ''Cashan Mountains'') of northern South Africa, is a modest but well-defined mountain range composed mainly of quartzites. It rises at a point south of the Pilanesberg (and the Pilanesberg National Park) to form a curved prominence that intersects suburban Pretoria before it peters out some to the east, just south of Bronkhorstspruit. The highest point of the Magaliesberg is reached at Nooitgedacht, about above sea level. A cableway reaching to the top of the mountain range is located at Hartbeespoort Dam, providing sweeping views of the Magaliesberg and surrounding area. Geology The Magaliesberg has ancient origins. Its composition is ascribed to successive geological processes over a very protracted history. Its quartzites, shales, chert and dolomite were deposited as sediments in an inland basin on top of a 3 billion year old Archaean Basement Complex, known as the Kaapvaal Craton. This process of sediment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kruger Park
Kruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends from north to south and from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926. To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, respectively. To the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere, an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zoos In South Africa
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, the study of animals. The term is derived from the Greek , , 'animal', and the suffix , , 'study of'. The abbreviation ''zoo'' was first used of the London Zoological Gardens, which was opened for scientific study in 1828 and to the public in 1847."Landmarks in ZSL History" , Zoological Society of London. In the alone, zoos are visited by over 181 million people annually. Etymology [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildlife Sanctuaries Of South Africa
Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted for sport. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems. Deserts, plains, grasslands, woodlands, forests, and other areas, including the most developed urban areas, all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that much wildlife is affected by human activities. Some wildlife threaten human safety, health, property, and quality of life. However, many wild animals, even the dangerous ones, have value to human beings. This value might be economic, educational, or emotional in nature. Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways, including the legal, social, and moral senses. Some animals, ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tourist Attractions In North West (South African Province)
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be domestic (within the traveller's own country) or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Tourism numbers declined as a result of a strong economic slowdown (the late-2000s recession) between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and in consequence of the outbreak of the 2009 2009 flu pandemic, H1N1 influenza virus, but slowly recovered unt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hartbeespoort
Hartbeespoort, informally also known as "Harties", is a small resort town in the North West Province of South Africa, situated on slopes of the Magaliesberg mountain and the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam. The name of the town means "gateway of the hartbees" (a species of antelope) in Afrikaans. Schoemansville, named after General Hendrik Schoeman, a Boer General in the Anglo-Boer War, who owned the farm that the Hartbeespoort Dam was built on, is the oldest neighbourhood of Hartbeespoort. Hartbeespoort is the collective name of a few smaller towns situated around the Hartbeespoort Dam, including the towns of Meerhof, Ifafi, Melodie, Schoemansville and Kosmos. The town consists of holiday homes and permanent residences around the dam as it is popular with visitors from nearby Gauteng Province. It is home to the ''Om Die Dam'' ( en, Around the dam) ultra marathon of 50 km, which takes place annually in the first half of the year. Some of the main tourist attractions in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magaliesberg
The Magaliesberg (historically also known as ''Macalisberg'' or ''Cashan Mountains'') of northern South Africa, is a modest but well-defined mountain range composed mainly of quartzites. It rises at a point south of the Pilanesberg (and the Pilanesberg National Park) to form a curved prominence that intersects suburban Pretoria before it peters out some to the east, just south of Bronkhorstspruit. The highest point of the Magaliesberg is reached at Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements, Nooitgedacht, about above sea level. A Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway, cableway reaching to the top of the mountain range is located at Hartbeespoort Dam, providing sweeping views of the Magaliesberg and surrounding area. Geology The Magaliesberg has ancient origins. Its composition is ascribed to successive Geology, geological processes over a very protracted history. Its quartzites, shales, chert and Dolomite (rock), dolomite were deposited as sediments in an inland basin on top of a 3 billion year o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ring-tailed Lemur
The ring-tailed lemur (''Lemur catta'') is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families, and is the only member of the ''Lemur'' genus. Like all lemurs it is endemic to the island of Madagascar and endangered. Known locally in Malagasy as ' (, spelled ' in French) or ', it inhabits gallery forests to spiny scrub in the southern regions of the island. It is omnivorous and the most terrestrial of extant lemurs. The animal is diurnal, being active exclusively in daylight hours. The ring-tailed lemur is highly social, living in groups of up to 30 individuals. It is also female dominant, a trait common among lemurs. To keep warm and reaffirm social bonds, groups will huddle together. The ring-tailed lemur will also sunbathe, sitting upright facing its underside, with its thinner white fur towards the sun. Like other lemurs, this species relies strongly on its sense of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bush Elephant
The African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana'') is one of two extant African elephant species and one of three extant elephant species. It is the largest living terrestrial animal, with bulls reaching a shoulder height of up to and a body mass of up to . It is distributed across 37 African countries and inhabits forests, grasslands and woodlands, wetlands and agricultural land. Since 2021, it has been listed as Endangered species (IUCN status), Endangered on the IUCN Red List. It is threatened foremost by habitat destruction, and in parts of its range also by poaching for meat and ivory. It is a social mammal, travelling in herds composed of cows and their offspring. Adult bulls usually live alone or in small bachelor groups. It is a herbivore, feeding on grasses, creepers, herbs, leaves, and bark. The menstrual cycle lasts three to four months, and females are pregnant for 22 months, the longest gestation period of any mammal. Taxonomy ''Elephas africanus'' was the scien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hazyview
Hazyview is a sub-tropical farming town in Mpumalanga, South Africa, renowned for its large banana and macadamia nut industries, contributing about 20% of South Africa's bananas and 30% of macadamia output. Bordering the Kruger National Park, the town's name is derived from the shimmering haze that occurs during the heat of summer. Most of the province of Mpumalanga's private game reserves are found just east of Hazyview. History and demography This is one of the ancient Mapulana kingdoms under Kgoshi Magashula. Magashula used to command authority in the area before colonisation. It was he (Magashula) who gave Joao Albasini and thousands of his Tsonga followers permission to settle in the area in 1840 in what is known today as Numbi gate and PretoriusKop. For the land at Numbi on the banks of the Sabie River, Albasini gave kgoshi Magashula 200 herd of cattle as a purchase price for the land for chief Manungu his friend, this was after Kgoshi Magashula was satisfied that Albasini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North West Province
North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng and south of Botswana. History North West was incorporated after the end of Apartheid in 1994, and includes parts of the former Transvaal Province and Cape Province, as well as most of the former bantustan of Bophuthatswana. It was the scene of political violence in Khutsong, Merafong City Local Municipality in 2006 and 2007, after cross-province municipalities were abolished and Merafong Municipality was transferred entirely to North West. Merafong has since been transferred to Gauteng province in 2009. This province is the birthplace of prominent political figures: Lucas Mangope, Moses Kotane, Ahmed Kathrada, Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, Ruth Mompati, J. B. Marks, Aziz Pahad, Essop Pahad and others. Law and government The provincial government consists of a premier, an executive council of ten ministers, and a legislature. The provincia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garden Route
The Garden Route (Afrikaans: ''Tuinroete'') is a stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa which extends from Witsand in the Western Cape to the border of Tsitsikamma Storms River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant and ecologically diverse vegetation encountered here and the numerous estuaries and lakes dotted along the coast. It includes towns such as Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn, Great Brak River, Little Brak River, Wilderness, Sedgefield and Nature's Valley; with George, the Garden Route's largest city and main administrative centre. It has an oceanic climate, with mild to warm summers, and mild to cool winters. Temperatures rarely fall below 10 °C in winter and rarely climb beyond 28 °C in summer. Rain occurs year-round, with a slight peak in the spring months, brought by the humid sea-winds from the Indian Ocean rising and releasing their precipitation along the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma Mountains just inland of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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