Timbavati Game Reserve

Timbavati Game Reserve
Leopard at Tanda Tula camp
Location in Mpumalanga province Location of Mpumalanga in South Africa
Location	Mpumalanga, South Africa
Nearest city	Nelspruit
Coordinates	24°20′07″S 31°20′38″E / 24.33528°S 31.34389°E / -24.33528; 31.34389Coordinates: 24°20′07″S 31°20′38″E / 24.33528°S 31.34389°E / -24.33528; 31.34389
Area	53,392 hectares (533.92 km2)[1][2]
Established	1956[3][4]
Official website

The Timbavati Game Reserve is located to the north of the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve on the western edge of Kruger National Park.

The Reserve was established in 1956 by like-minded game farmers with the creation of the Timbavati Association. The association has 50 members and covers 53,392 hectares (533.92 km²).^[1][2] Timbavati is part of Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR) and the fences separating Timbavati from the other member reserves in the APNR and from the Kruger National Park has been removed.^[5] Wildlife, including lion, elephant, cheetah and other species roam freely between the these reserves.

History

Ngala (Ngala, meaning 'lion' in Shangaan) and Motswari game reserves have been amalgamated into Timbavati.

Geography

The Timbavati Reserve is located in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa^[6] between latitudes 24° 34’ S and 24° 03’ S and longitudes 31° 03’ E and 31° 31’ E. The Timbavati Reserve consists of 50 contiguous tracts of land housing 12 luxury tourist lodges.

The Reserve forms part of the Greater Kruger Park and lies nestled between the Kruger National Park on the east, the Klaserie and Umbabat Private Nature Reserves in the north and the Thornybush Private Nature Reserve in the west. There are no fences between the Timbavati and the Kruger National Park which allows free movement of wildlife between the Reserves. The world-famous Kruger National Park is a conservation area of more than 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi).

The southern border of this great complex of public and privately - owned protected land lies close to the Kingdom of Swaziland and abuts the boundaries of Zimbabwe in the north and Mozambique in the east.

The terrain is undulating with altitudes varying between 300 and 500m above sea level. The area is characterised as ‘savanna bushveld’ with 6 different landscape types: acacia woodland, open woodland, mopane woodland, combretum woodland, mixed combretum woodland and mixed veld on Gabbro. Elephant, buffalo, kudu, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, impala, waterbuck and warthog abound together with their attendant predators which include lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena. The critically endangered African wild dog is also a regular visitor to the Timbavati Reserve. The larger and rarer antelopes such as Roan, Eland and Tsessebe have been slow to return to this area and their numbers are still critically low.

The climate is typified by a summer wet season (October – March) with the majority of rain falling between December and February. This is also the hottest time of the year, with temperatures in the region of 32 °C. A typical summer day will be hot with storm clouds gathering for a spectacular late afternoon thunderstorm.

During the winter months (April – September) the weather is dry with little chance of rain. As game tends to congregate around dwindling water sources, game viewing is more predictable. Temperatures can range from 28 °C to 10 °C in one day. The mornings and evenings can be very cold and warm clothing is advised.

Flora and fauna

Sunset over Timbavati Game Reserve.

The Timbavati is home to:

• Over 40 mammals, including the Big Five: Lion, African elephant, African Buffalo, African leopard and black rhinoceros.
• Over 360 bird species.
• 79 species of reptile.
• 49 species of fish.
• 85 listed species of tree.

White lions

Lions with a recessive gene causing the coats to be snow white (though not albino) reappeared in the Timbavati in 2006 after an absence of many years.^[7]

When the White Lions of the Timbavati were discovered in the mid-1970s they became the subject of much interest and debate. The story of the “White Lions of the Timbavati” has been told by several people, most notable of whom were Mr. Chris McBride and Ms Linda Tucker, both of whom have published books about the phenomenon: The White Lions of the Timbavati and Operation White Lion (Chris McBride) and Mystery of the White Lion (Linda Tucker). Chris was the son of Timbavati member Cyril McBride who at the time, together with his brother Robert - owned the farm Vlakgezicht.

McBride relied heavily on the expertise and knowledge of two local trackers, Jack Mathebula and Mandaban Hlongo, in his efforts to track the white cubs. These men had grown up in the bush and had intimate knowledge of the behaviour of lions.

A wrong assumption was made that their white coat prevents them from hunting successfully. Perhaps as a result, white lions have been recurrently removed artificially from the wild to be placed in zoos or the South African hunting and breeding camps. In partnership with lion ecologist Jason Turner, activist and author Linda Tucker has returned white lions to the wild in protected reserves where hunting and removal are prohibited, and have demonstrated over years that white lions hunt successfully despite claims of the contrary. While white lions can naturally be born in the Timbavati region where parents carry the recessive gene, systematic hunting, poaching, and removal have caused a dramatic population decline. Today, less than a dozen exist in the wild (seven of which are protected in Linda Tucker's White Lion Protection Trust reserve). Conversely, hundreds of white lions are kept in zoos and canned hunting camps where they are often inbred to guarantee their white coat.^[8]

White Lions are revered as spirits of deceased kings by local tribes, notably the Shaangaan people. There have been various “spiritual” powers attributed to the White lions and many people were and still are of the opinion that the lions are a different species. Today scientific research is being conducted to further understand the genetic coding of the white lions.

Interesting to note that all white lions world wide are ancestrally linked to the White Lions of the Timbavati.

Note: LEUCISM The white coats possessed by the “White Lions of the Timbavati” were not the product of “albinism” (a relatively common condition resulting from a failure to develop pigment), but from another condition called “leucism”, in which the pelt is white but eyes and skin are pigmented. This rare event (also termed a “chinchilla mutation”) is thought to represent an evolutionary stage in the progressive loss of pigmentation.

The white mutation, which affects two of the pigments involved in coat colouration, is expressed only when two conditions pertain: (1) Both parents carry the recessive “white gene”; and (2) the offspring inherit the recessive gene of each parent. If a cub receives a dominant “tawny” gene from either parent, its pelt will be tawny. Thus a litter may contain both tawny and white cubs.

Travel

The Timbavati is approximately 5 or 6 hours by car from Johannesburg. Normal passenger vehicles can reach all lodges within the reserve.

Regularly scheduled, daily flights are available from Johannesburg and Cape Town to local airports.

Accommodation

Malaria

Malaria is present in the area.^[9]

See also

• Associated Private Nature Reserves
• Kruger National Park
• Protected areas of South Africa
• White lion

References

External links

• Timbavati Private Nature Reserve - Official Site
• Unofficial Timbavati Game Reserve Guide
• Ngala Private Game Reserve - Official Site
• White Lion Protection Trust - Official Site