In response to readers’ comments on a Tourism Update article, Vergelen has responded with more clarity on two of its projects.

When the project was initiated, maximum alien plant density was  80 000 to 100 000 stems per hectare. Three fires – 1997, 2009 and 2017 – necessitated re-clearing most of the areas that had already been rehabilitated. Alien vegetation continues to recur and, consequently, Vergelegen is now in a maintenance phase with an overall alien density of 2-5% over the entire extent of the property.

This is, however, young re-growth treated annually, and maintenance will continue to take place until such time that the seed bank accumulated over the years has been depleted.

Over the duration of the project Vergelegen generated at least 231 jobs for previously unemployed and untrained people, in areas ranging from bush cutting to hand-picking and spraying alien seedlings. Several of these contractors, who have now established their own small businesses, continue to undertake maintenance for Vergelegen.

The Quagga Project, initiated by Reinhold Rau in 1987, is based on findings that the extinct quagga was not a zebra species of its own but one of several subspecies or local forms of the Plains Zebra.

It is expected that continuous selective breeding will, with successive generations, reduce the high degree of individual variation, both in colour and in extent of striping, which are characteristics of the southern Plains Zebra.

Eventually individuals should emerge whose coat-pattern characteristics closely resemble those of the extinct quagga. By January 2024 there were 139 animals in the breeding herd, comprising 16 breeding groups in several locations, including Vergelegen. Please find detailed information on the quagga project here.