Have you ever seen a peculiar, goat-like mammal trotting the slopes of Table Mountain? If so, you’ve stumbled upon the infamous Himalayan Tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus), a large ungulate (“hoofed animal”) native to Northern India, Southern Tibet, China and Nepal (ref). The story of how these exotic,
The Cape Mountain Zebra’s entire population is restricted to the southern mountains of the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces and at the turn of the century the species was at the brink of extinction, reaching a total low population of around ninety animals in the
Dassies (Procavia capensis) are a common sight when hiking in the Table Mountain National Park. More closely related to elephants than the guinea pigs that they superficially resemble, dassies are one of four living species in the order Hyracoidea, and the only living species in
Historically confined to the coastal plains of the Western Cape, the Bontebok was almost brought to extinction by overhunting. With a remaining population of less than 20 animals, a few farming families on the Agulhas Plain near Bredasdorp started to protect it in the mid
The eland is the world’s largest antelope and gained its name from the Dutch word ‘eland’ which means ‘elk’. It is one of the most adaptable of the antelopes – equally at home in savannah, sub-desert, woodland and mountainous areas up to 4600m. In the