Karoo National Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Tankwa Karoo National Park.
Karoo National Park
IUCN category II (national park)

Karoo landscape
Location of the park
Location Western Cape, South Africa
Nearest city Beaufort West
Coordinates 32°21′S 22°35′E / 32.350°S 22.583°E / -32.350; 22.583Coordinates: 32°21′S 22°35′E / 32.350°S 22.583°E / -32.350; 22.583
Area 767.9 km2 (296.5 sq mi)[1]
Established 1979
Governing body South African National Parks
Official website

The Karoo National Park, founded in 1979, is a wildlife reserve in the isolated Karoo area of the Western Cape, South Africa near Beaufort West. The area is mostly semi-desert and is well known for its isolation. The national park, which covers an area of 767.9 square kilometres (296.5 sq mi),[1] is home to many desert mammals, as well as the well-known Verreaux's Eagle. It also has the greatest number of tortoise species of any park in the world - five in total.[2][3] Endangered species such as the Black Rhinoceros and Riverine Rabbit have been successfully resettled here.[4]

Many fossils have been uncovered at both the national park and its surrounding area, of which some are estimated at almost three-hundred million years old. Most fossils date from the Mesozoic Era in the history of Earth. During this period, the area was covered by sea, depositing its sediment atop the dead creatures. The area then became volcanic and as the sandstone eroded away, it left the conical and table-shaped mountains that are characteristic of Karoo.[5]

Karoo National Park is also known for its connection with the Quagga Project, a project run by Reinhold Rau to bring back an animal that looked and acted as much like the extinct quagga as possible. In 1998, fourteen quagga-like zebras were released into the park and, in January 2005, the most quagga-like foal was born, with narrower and fainter stripes in a more limited area of its body. This led Rau to predict that a full quagga would emerge by the fourth generation of breeding.[6]

See also

  • List of conservation areas of South Africa

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Karoo National Park". Protected Planet. Retrieved 9 September 2012. 
  2. ↑ http://www.nature-reserve.co.za/cape-western-karoo-national-park.html
  3. ↑ Karoo National Park - Official Site, Sanparks. URL last accessed on April 1, 2006
  4. ↑ Karoo national Park, Beaufort West SA. URL last accessed on April 2, 2006.
  5. ↑ Karoo national Park: Western Cape, SouthAfrica-travel. URL last accessed on April 1, 2006
  6. ↑ Taxidermist had passion to revive extinct Quagga", Media and Guardian. URL last accessed on April 2, 2006

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.