Kruger Park News Archive
South African National Parks (SANParks) will auction twenty white rhino from the Kruger National Park (KNP) as well as eland bulls from Mountain Zebra National Park at the annual Kirkwood Auction on June 20. SANParks earned the highest price for a single adult white rhino bull which went for R640 000 at last year's auction.Proceeds of the sale of SANParks wildlife on the game auction are ploughed into SANParks' Park Development Fund, a fund which is used to expand and develop the national park system. The Kirkwood Wildlife auction, which raised R11 million in 2008, is now the second largest auction in the country. Bidders from far and wide will converge at the Kirkwood Wildlife Festival grounds for the auction.Addo Buffalo
Twenty-two Addo buffalo will be up for sale at the auction. The buffalo will be sold in four family groups consisting of a bull and several cows as well as six individual breeding bulls and one individual subadult bull. The buffalo have already been captured and are being held in the bomas at Addo Elephant National Park for the testing necessary to confirm their disease-free status.Addo buffalo are traditionally much sought-after as breeding stock due to the absence of diseases such as bovine tuberculosis, corridor disease and foot-and-mouth disease in the herd. Addo Elephant National Park is home to the largest disease-free buffalo herd in South Africa.
Other Game
Also on auction for the first time will be four family herds of the endangered Cape mountain zebra. These family herds will be captured in Mountain Zebra National Park which now boasts over 500 of the endangered zebra. They will be sold on catalogue at the auction.Bushveld Game Capture will host a family herd of Burchell's zebra as well as blesbok family groups and breeding rams in Addo's bomas. Breeding groups of various antelope as well as giraffe will also be sold on catalogue at the auction.
Bidders can view the wildlife on auction before the sale at Addo Elephant National Park, RiverBend and Shamwari bomas.
