By the early 19th century, it was part of a Zulu kingdom ruled by the legendary Shaka. “The resilience was incredible.”īabanango has a long and varied history. “Once we stopped hunting and cleared out the cattle, it was remarkable how nature bounced back,” adds Baxter. “But the most amazing thing,” says reserve general manager Andrew Baxter, “is the fact that many other species returned on their own.” Most significantly leopards, but also serval and caracal cats, aardvarks and aardwolves, as well as many smaller mammals and much of the bird and reptile life that had previously vanished. “Straight from the truck and into the bush.” Unlike smaller animals, that undergo a short habituation period inside an enclosure before their release into the wild. “That’ll be a ‘cold’ release,” says Babanango guide Hendrik Fehsenfeld of the pachyderms. A pride of lions is scheduled to arrive in March, an elephant herd in April. The Babanango Game Reserve is a wildlife wonderland.
