Marloth Park Management Plan. - Nkomazi Local Municipality

Surface erosion will reduce water infiltration and excessive water run-off will lead to further
erosion. Soil types susceptible to accelerated erosion such as duplex soils should be avoided
when constructing new waterholes. The distance between watering points also has significant
effect on the impact of waterholes on the condition of the veld. To reduce the impact of
trampling and soil erosion it is advisable that water points are clustered and separated by large
waterless areas. This regime gives the waterless areas the possibility to rest and recover.
Rangeland utilisation in areas of water supply is relatively low, due to the distribution of
grazing pressure among several watering points rather than focussing on one waterhole.
Trampling of rangeland in the immediate vicinity of watering points is minimized. Clustered
watering points are best located within a radius of 500 m, in order to split up large herds.
Smaller animal groups watering at the same time reduces the time spent at the waterhole and
therefore, causes less trampling.
The distance between individual waterholes also influences animal behaviour. Impalas forage
as far as 2.2 km, zebra 7.2 km and blue wildebeest 7.4 km distant from waterholes. Mobile,
water-dependant large herbivores forage up to 10 km from water in the dry season.
Populations of roan antelope, sable antelope and reedbuck decline if the distance between
permanent water does not exceed 10 km. Roan antelope and sable antelope require tall grass
and endure for 4 to 5 days without drinking. For these animals areas should be provided, that
are farther than 10 km away from water. Waterbuck will also only flourish if densities of
other species are kept low. Therefore, the number and placement of available water points
needs to be carefully balanced. Mobile, water-dependent animals such as Burchell´s zebra,
buffalo and blue wildebeest will benefit from medium water point densities such as one
cluster per 100 to 300 km 2 . Non-mobile, water-dependant animals such as impala and warthog
prosper in degraded habitat with sparse cover and high density of watering points, such as one
cluster of watering points per 0.8 to 20 km 2 . Areas for water independent animals such as
eland, klipspringer and steenbok should not have artificial watering points. It is recommend to
provide areas the size of approximately 20 km 2 , where water is supplied, alternating with
areas of the same size, where no waterholes exist. This should promote an increase in species
diversity. Browsers such as black rhinoceros, giraffe and kudu are less affected by water point
regimes than grazers, because of higher moisture content in browse than in graze.
For maintenance of a wide diversity of animals when focussing on tourism and game viewing,
areas within 10 km reach of permanent water are recommended to comprise 70 to 80 percent
of the property. In that case one existing permanent watering point per 400 to 600 km 2 should
be stabilised. If less than 70 percent of the area is within a 10 km radius of a water point,
water should be supplied to semi-permanent pools and pans, or even in temporary pans.
© Ecological Associates/ Marloth Park 112