Tag Archives: Harkerville Forest

History of the Knysna Elephants 2000-2018

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2000-2009 In 2000, the ‘Matriarch’ (about 60 years old) was seen by the late Lyall Watson. She was standing on the edge of the Harkerville forest staring towards the sea. This was the last (known) occurrence of an elephant crossing the National Road to Harkerville (Van der Vyver, 2014; Watson, 2002). The sighting by Watson meant that the ‘Matriarch’ was not dead after all, but was elsewhere, in places where elephants had not roamed for almost a quarter of a century. The ancient elephant pathways at Harkerville had beckoned again … Read the full article…

History of the Knysna Elephants 1908-1979

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1908 In 1908, elephants were proclaimed as Royal Game. Thus they were protected from being hunted by all except the British royalty. Fortunately no further Royals passed by (Watson, 2002). However, it is a well-known fact that you cannot protect a species merely by declaring it to be protected. Because poachers usually come from the more ignorant classes, and quite often they will simply not have heard of the decree. Or if they are a bit more educated they will ignore the edict because they think they are clever enough … Read the full article…

Early Humans to be Researched in Knysna’s Forest

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A University of Texas at Arlington anthropologist has been awarded a grant from the prestigious Leakey Foundation that will enable her to research early humans in South Africa. Naomi Cleghorn, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, will lead a team of researchers and students this summer to a site near Knysna, South Africa, on the southern coast of the continent. She believes the site dates to a rarely represented time period – between 44,000 and 18,000 years ago – and holds never-before-seen evidence of early human evolution. … Read the full article…