habitat_narrative

Terrestrial

The Springbok is the most abundant plains antelope in the arid lands of southern Africa and formerly occurred in huge numbers in the dry grasslands and shrublands of southwestern and southern Africa, migrating sporadically in vast herds (“trekbokken”) in some of the southern parts of its range in response to rainfall and the search for verdant veld (Skinner 1993). For example, Cronwright-Schreiner (1925) observed a herd of hundreds of thousands attempting to cross the Orange River where thousands of animals drowned. These migrations or treks no longer occur, having largely been eliminated by expansion of stock farming, and associated fencing, overhunting and the rinderpest epidemic in 1896 (Skinner 1993). However, some indication of the species’ former abundance can still be seen as seasonal concentrations in areas with preferred short vegetation in parts of the Kalahari that occur in central and southern Botswana (East 1999). Congregations disperse into small groups during winter (Cain et al. 2004).

Springbok are mixed feeders (Hofmann et al. 1995), consuming both browse and grass. They prefer to utilise grass when it is young, but otherwise browse karroid vegetation which includes a variety of low shrubs and succulents (Skinner 2013). Nevertheless, they show great variation in dietary preferences across habitats, and even amongst individuals within habitats (D. Codron pers. obs.), as some individuals and even whole subpopulations consume mainly grass. Springbok occur in areas where surface water is unavailable or available only seasonally, and receive their moisture requirements from browsing on succulent karroid vegetation, by digging succulent roots, or by eating fruits such as Solanum spp. (Nagy and Knight 1994, Skinner and Chimimba 2005). They are often sympatric with merino sheep in the Karoo, where Springbok display a better spatial utilisation of the vegetation by being more dispersed in the landscape and less dependent on proximity of food to water points that prevent over-exploitation of the vegetation (Davies and Skinner 1986a).

Within the matrix of Kalahari sands, Springbok prefer both salt and calcareous pans (Milton et al. 1992), as well as dry riverbeds (Jackson 1997), and the males select territories to attract the attention of female herds by choosing these high-quality foraging habitats (Jackson and Skinner 1998). These high quality habitats tend to have more clay soils (aside from dry riverbeds and Kalahari sands) that are nutrient rich, and have a richer assemblage of dwarf shrubs. Such habitats are, however, localised in occurrence, and are represented by the Southern Kalahari Mekgacha and Southern Kalahari Salt Pans vegetation (Mucina and Rutherford 2006). The presence of such habitat types may thus influence Springbok spatial ecology (Power 2014). Key habitats are thus open grasslands (particularly the short grass fringes of pans), arid shrubveld (Karoo) and the mainly karroid vegetation associated with Northern Cape pans.

Ecosystem and cultural services: The Springbok is the national animal of South Africa. It also features prominently in San paintings demonstrating that they have been significant to humans for thousands of years (Eastwood et al. 2002).