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Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve is a nature reserve consisting of
veld Veld ( or ), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in :Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Bot ...
and koppies (hills) run by the Johannesburg City Parks. It is located south of
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
, in an area of . Home to many species of flora and bird life, it is also home to large and small
mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur o ...
such as blesbok,
zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zebr ...
,
wildebeest Wildebeest ( , , ), also called gnu ( or ), are antelopes of the genus ''Connochaetes'' and native to Eastern and Southern Africa. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes true antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, and other even-to ...
and duiker. The reserve has a number of hiking trails and archaeological sites, with the ''Bloubosspruit'' flowing through the area.


History

Prehistory saw the area inhabited by stone age man who hunted in the area with the location claimed to have the highest concentration of identified
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
sites on the
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
with the discovery of artefacts dating back 250,000 years. The
Sotho-Tswana peoples The Sotho-Tswana people are a meta-ethnicity of southern Africa and live predominantly in Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho. The group mainly consists of four clusters; Southern Sotho (Sotho), Northern Sotho (which consists of the Bapedi ...
would later settle in the area in the 1400s and would leave the location around 1800 when possibly climate changes and the movement of more militant tribes into the area saw their departure to
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...
. Their lifestyle consisted of animal husbandry and the growing millet, sorghum and later maize imported into Africa by the Portuguese traders. Around 1850, Voorttrekker Sarel Marais bought land on a western portion of the Rietvlei farm part of which is the reserve today, and used it for grazing and peach farming. His descendants would eventually sell the farm in 1914 to the Quilliam family who used it for dairy farming and as a piggery. By 1939, the Quilliam family had sold the land to the
City of Johannesburg The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Z ...
. After the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand, the shortage of water saw a proposal to build a dam in the northern part of the reserve. To be called the Vierfontein Dam, work ended on it as the Second Boer War broke out and all that remains across the ''spruit'' is the remains of a
weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...
. After the war, the proposal was found to be uneconomical and the
Rand Water Rand Water, previously known as the Rand Water Board, is a South African water utility that supplies potable water to the Gauteng province and other areas of the country and is the largest water utility in Africa. The water is drawn from numerous s ...
Board chose the
Vaal Dam The Vaal Dam in South Africa was constructed in 1938 and lies 77 km south of OR Tambo International Airport. The lake behind the dam wall has a surface area of about and is 47 meters deep. The Vaal Dam lies on the Vaal River, which is one ...
barrage as a better option. During the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...
, the hills around the reserve were used by Boers in the defence of Johannesburg against the southern advance of the British forces under Lord Roberts from the direction of
Vereeniging Vereeniging () is a town located in the south of Gauteng province, South Africa, situated where the Klip River empties into the northern loop of the Vaal River. It is also one of the constituent parts of the Vaal Triangle region and was formerly s ...
. In the late 1970s residents of the area petitioned the Johannesburg City Council to declare the area as nature reserve. The council asked the residents to form an association to assist the council in the proposed reserves management and was formed as the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve Association; the nature reserve was proclaimed in 1984.


Fauna and flora

Large mammals such as Black Wildebeest, Blesbok,
Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm ...
,
Red Hartebeest The red hartebeest (''Alcelaphus buselaphus caama''), also called the Cape hartebeest or Caama, is a subspecies of the hartebeest found in Southern Africa. More than 130,000 individuals live in the wild. The red hartebeest is closely related to t ...
and Zebra are found in the reserve with approximately 240 of these large animals. Also found are numerous small mammals. 215 species of bird life have been recorded in the reserve as well as snakes,
geckos Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...
, lizards,
skinks Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. Sk ...
and terrapins. It is also a haven for insect life such as butterflies and spiders. There is said to be between 650—700 species of plants in the reserve. Over 340 wild flowers, 67 tree and shrub types as well as 70 grasses species have been catalogued.


Recreation

The fenced reserve is open all year round from dawn to dusk. The ruins of Marais' farmhouse, wagon shelter and family cemetery can still be seen today. There are also nine trails to hike, amounting to . To the north of the reserve is the Silent Pool, the result of a hole dug during the construction of the proposed dam. The reserve can be entered at two points: * The main entrance in Peggy Vera Road, Kibler Park. * Silent Pool entrance in from Frandalph Drive, Mondeor.


Gallery

File:Black Wildebeest 2.jpg, Black Wildebeest File:Gymnosporia buxifolia00.jpg, Gymnosporia buxifolia File:Transvaal Girdled Lizard, Klipriviersberg, Johannesburg, South Africa.JPG, alt=, Transvaal Girdled Lizard File:Yellow Mongoose Klipriviersberg Johannesburg.jpg, alt=,
Yellow Mongoose The yellow mongoose (''Cynictis penicillata''), sometimes referred to as the red meerkat, is a member of the mongoose family. It averages about in weight and about in length. It lives in open country, semi-desert scrubland and grasslands in An ...


References


External links


Map of the Nature Reserve
from jhbcityparks.com
Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve Association

Hiking the Reserve
{{Greater Johannesburg Nature reserves in South Africa Parks in Johannesburg Tourist attractions in Johannesburg Tourist attractions in Gauteng