SPRINGBOK (ANTIDORCAS MARSUPIALIS) TREKS

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Abstract
SUMMARY Springbok treks are well established phenomena. At least 33 such treks have been recorded and their history is set out in this paper. Those along the western Cape coast seem to have been endogenously triggered, with springbok trekhng from the arid, summer-rainfall Bushmanland of the interior to the more mesic, winter-rainfall Koue Bokkeveld in winter to lamb. Treks in the Karoo were influenced either by rainfall and verdant veld, the smell of which was conveyed by wind and attracted the springbok or they were driven by lack of food to search for better pasture. Fencing would not have deterred them as they became quite fearless as they marched or stampeded on. The great treks of the last century almost certainly terminated with the advent of rinderpest in the Cape Province in 1896 which decimated springbok herds. Recovery in numbers may well have been delayed by the advent of the breech-loading rifle.

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