The Pilanesberg National Park is located north of Rustenburg in the North West Province of South Africa. The park owes its existence to a rehabilitation project which started in 1979, and the subsequent Operation Genesis, which introduced game animals of various species.

Scattered throughout the park are various sites that are assigned to the Iron and Stone Ages and illustrate the presence of man during those early periods.

The park

The park was established in 1979 as a conservation project with socio-economic objectives. The construction of the 110 km (68 miles) long game fence, spanning rugged terrain, commenced in the same year. Operation Genesis involved a rehabilitation plan for the farming region and the stocking of some 6,000 game animals of 22 species.

Wildlife

Flora

The scenic terrain lies in the transition zone between Kalahari and bushveld, and both types of vegetation are found here. As a result of the park being in a transition zone, there are overlaps in mammals, birds, and vegetation.

Distinct vegetation communities can be found in the Pilanesberg. The broad vegetation communities present in the Park have been described as follows:

  • North-facing hill savanna – these slopes receive more sunlight and are therefore drier than the south-facing slopes. The dominant tree is the red bushwillow.
  • South-facing hill savanna – this area is characterized by hook thorn, wild pear and buffalo thorn. The absence of elephants from the system for over 140 years allowed the mountain cabbage tree to spread through the Pilanesberg. These trees and aloes are sought after by elephants and are now restricted to the highest hills.
  • Pediment savanna – the pediments contain a subterranean layer of ferricrete, an accumulation of hard sheets of iron oxides. This prevents tree growth and maintains open grasslands.
  • Valley savanna – this savanna is dominated by sweet thorn, umbrella thorn, karree, leadwood, tamboti and buffalo-thorn trees.
  • Valley thicket – thickets of sweet thorn and black thorn occur on brack soils in the valleys.
  • Rock outcrop thicket – outcrops of red syenite have weathered into a jumble of red-brown boulders that support a thicket dominated by lavender fever-berry, large-leaved fig, and red balloon tree.

Mammals

Today, Pilanesberg National Park accommodates almost every large mammal of southern Africa, and its rich array of southern African wildlife includes the Big Five, the five most dangerous game animals in Africa. Though the Pilanesberg is not in a location which the Big Five animals would naturally inhabit in any numbers, they have been introduced to the 550 square kilometres of African bushland.

Resident large mammal species include lions, elephants, black rhinos, white rhinos, Cape buffaloes, leopards, cheetahs, plains zebras, giraffes and hippos. The Cape wild dog (Lycaon pictus pictus) was extirpated from the park by poachers, but subsequent reintroduction efforts were successful. The reserve is also home to brown hyenas.

As of December 2010 the total count of large mammals was approximately 10,000. These included:

  • 1,800-3,000 impalas
  • 630 blue wildebeest
  • 440-600 kudus
  • 140-220 African buffaloes
  • 100 waterbuck
  • 70 mountain reedbuck
  • 80 springbok
  • 50 tsessebe
  • 40 red hartebeest
  • 30 klipspringer
  • 30 steenbok
  • 20 common eland
  • 5 sable antelopes
  • <5 Cape bushbuck
  • <5 Southern reedbuck
  • <5 common duiker
  • 150 warthog
  • 130-170 South African giraffes
  • 50 hippopotamus
  • South-western black rhinoceros
  • Southern white rhinoceros
  • 1,100-1,700 plains zebras
  • 220-380 African bush elephants

Other carnivores are present, such as caracals and banded mongoose. Native primates are chacma baboon, vervet monkey and mohol bushbaby. Indigenous southern African mammals that are not present are bontebok, blesbok, nyala and roan antelope. In addition to mammals some 60 crocodiles are resident. of the Kgafêla people, who ruled from Bogopane, Mmamodimokwana and eventually Mmasebudule during the 1800s.

Pre 1970s

In the late nineteenth century, Pilanesberg served as a sanctuary to Mzilikazi’s rebel Zulu warriors who passed through the area as they fled the wrath of the Zulu king, Shaka. A mission station was established more or less in the northwestern part of the park, on the farm Driefontein, which lay wedged between a large section of land traditionally owned by the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela (commonly known as the Bakgatla) tribe. This land constitutes much of the northern region of today's Pilanesberg reserve.

What is now the southern section of the Pilanesberg reserve was originally a set of farms which were sold to and registered in the names of a number of Boer farmers by the South African Republic government in the 1860s. These farmers were responsible for building the Houwater dam - now known as the Mankwe dam - which is the Pilanesberg's largest standing water reservoir. During the 1960s, these farms were re-purchased by the South African government, which, under Apartheid policies, re-settled the Bakubung tribe from nearby Ventersdorp onto the farms Wydhoek, Koedoesfontein, and Ledig. These farms, situated on and in the southern part of the Pilanesberg reserve adjacent to Sun City, North West, were subsequently delivered to Bophuthatswana, a large northwestern bantustan, for administration and control. As a result, the only remaining private property inside the Pilanesberg reserve amounts to 3 small sections (likely graveyards, approximately 3 hectares each in size) as well as a farm (approximately 608 hectares) registered in the name of Catherina Clark, a daughter of Jan Smuts.

1970s

A planning committee was established to develop the game reserve, which was to include the whole of the Pilanesberg mountains. However, to facilitate this new designation, people residing in the area had to be re-settled. Following that, all buildings in the area, including the mission church on Driefontein but excluding the magistrate court building, were demolished. (The magistrate court building, a lovely Cape Dutch style structure, burned down in an accidental blaze in the 1980s. It was subsequently partially rebuilt. A new building, the Pilanesberg Centre, was also erected near where the court used to stand.) Additionally, all non-native flora were razed from the region in an attempt to ensure only authentic native plant life would exist in the park.

Following negotiations with the Bophuthatswana government, the Bakgatla tribe, under Chief Tsidimane Pilane, agreed to the inclusion of the mountainous region of their property within the Pilanesberg reserve. The 60 families of the Bakgatla tribe farming and living near the mission station at Driefontein were re-settled under an agreement with the tribal authority. They were moved to a newly planned town on the farm Sandfontein, to the east of the Pilanesberg National Park.

The Bophuthatswana administration also negotiated with the Bakubung tribe to purchase their land within the southern region of the park. The tribe was offered land on adjacent farms Zandrivierspoort, Palmietfontein, and Mahobieskraal, in exchange for portions of the farms Ledig, Koedoesfontein, and Wydhoek, on a hectare-for-hectare basis. As the agricultural value of the new land on offer exceeded that of the old, the Bakubung eventually accepted the offer. (Around the same time, Sun International obtained a ninety-nine-year leasehold over the adjacent farm Doornhoek and built the Sun City complex, which abuts the Pilanesberg reserve, along the common boundary with the farm Ledig.)

It was at this point that work began on Operation Genesis, which involved the reintroduction of long-vanished species after completion of approximately 100&nbsp; km of fencing around the reserve's perimeter. This reintroduction was still ongoing when the Pilanesberg National Park, was opened in the early 1980s by President Mangope with Chief Pilane present.

1980s

thumb|[[Chapman's zebra|Plains zebra grazing in a Pilanesberg landscape]]

6000 animals were resettled into the park over the course of the early 1980s with Operation Genesis, which was featured on a two-part episode on Wild Kingdom in 1981. It was the largest game resettlement program in the history of the country. The 6000 animals were released into the quarantine area of 10&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> in groups and after a few weeks the fences were dropped. As the purpose of the park was a feeder for other parks no lions or cheetahs were brought in. However, leopards were naturally present as were brown hyena and mountain reedbuck. Currently, Pilanesberg has the highest concentration of hyena of any game park in the world. Also brought in was a family of elephants. As no mature bulls were brought in as they were too large, the young bulls caused a bit of havoc and killed 17 rhinoceroses. The reason for this was there was no parental care and the young bulls came into adolescence at too young an age. However, by this time the transport techniques had improved so 6 older bulls were brought in from the Kruger National Park. This suppressed the adolescence problem. The young culprits were all shot.

The creation of the Pilanesberg National Park is considered one of the most ambitious programs of its kind to be undertaken anywhere in the world.