{"id":1318,"date":"2013-04-26T11:25:07","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T15:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/?page_id=1318"},"modified":"2013-04-26T11:26:34","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T15:26:34","slug":"frontier-game-auction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/travels\/south-africa\/eastern-cape\/frontier-game-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontier Game Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreaterFrontierGameAuction\"<\/a>Do you ever wonder where private game reserves and conservationists get their animals?\u00a0 Unlike Namibia, where the game runs wild and there are few, if any, fences, nearly the whole of South Africa is fenced.\u00a0 You can tell the difference between a farmer’s fence and a nature reserve fence by its overall height.\u00a0 Game reserve fences are nearly 3 meters high, in a futile attempt to keep the Kudu antelope inside the area!<\/p>\n

\"GreaterFrontierAuctioneer\"<\/a>This year marked the Inaugural Great Frontier Game Sale <\/strong>on a rainy Saturday at the Sidbury Country Club near the Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape.\u00a0 The day’s activities began early in the morning with the possibility to view some of the animal stock up for auction before the “we’ll start at 6000, we’ll start at 6000, does anyone bid 6000, how about 5500? Do I have 5500, 5500; how about 5000 Rand” began shortly after noontime.\u00a0 If you’ve ever been to an auction, livestock or estate sale, anywhere in the U.S., you could have been at Sidbury.<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Impala\"<\/a>There were two parts to the auction.\u00a0 Livestock was auctioned in a Boma sale.\u00a0 Boma’s are wood-fenced enclosures on a private game reserve or farmer’s property into which the animals for sale have been herded or isolated.\u00a0 The Impala herd, on the right, was offered by Shamwari in 7 lots, each of which had 1-2 males, up to 11 females, and 6-8 juveniles.\u00a0 When bid upon, the bid price was for one individual, and that figure was used to determine the lot price.\u00a0 Impala, a relatively inexpensive bok, went from R 980 ($114; 4\/2013 exchange rate) to R 1120 ($125) per antelope.\u00a0 Black Impala, “the flavor of the month,” sold at R 140,000 ($15,500) per individual!<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Waterbok\"<\/a>Waterbok, on the other hand, were in short supply.\u00a0 Similar to the Impala, each lot consisted of 1 male, up to 5 females, and 1-2 juveniles.\u00a0 This antelope is “distinguished” by a white ring around its “bum,” and the story is told that these bok were the first onto Noah’s Ark.\u00a0 You may ask, “how can you tell?” They were the first to sit upon the freshly painted toilet seats.\u00a0 Waterbok are a bit more expensive than Impala, fetching a per animal price of R 2500 ($275).<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Blesbok\"<\/a>Blesbok are common on the South African plains, easily identified as an adult by the presence of a white face and forehead.\u00a0 This antelope, found in very large numbers in most national parks and game reserves, is endemic to South Africa. Both sexes develop horns, but it is only the males that use them for territorial battles.\u00a0 Due to the species’ proliferation in captivity, lots of Blesbok included 2 males, 6-7 females, and 1-2 juveniles.\u00a0 And, as you may suspect, their large numbers in the standing population results in a price near that of an Impala.\u00a0 Blesbok sold for R 1150 ($130) to R 1200 ($135) per individual.<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Hartebeest\"<\/a>Red Hartebeest, another common antelope, sold in lots of 10 individuals, bringing a price per animal of R 3100 ($350).\u00a0 This bok, originally restricted in its distribution to South Africa, is reddish-fawn in color, with a sloping back and a long narrow face. Both sexes develop heavily ringed horns, with the male using these to defend his herd.\u00a0 But, unlike other antelope, bulls often present themselves on prominent mounds and mark their territories with dung piles.<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Nyala\"<\/a>Nyala, sometimes referred to as the inyala, is a spiral-horned antelope that is native to southern Africa. Only individual males were up for auction on this Saturday, and each male was kept in a separate Boma.\u00a0 Males appear more charcoal-grey in color; females are brownish with white stripes running from their back to the abdomen. Only the rams develop long, inward curved horns and\u00a0 white markings on their face that are in a chevron pattern.\u00a0 Juvenile males are color patterned similar to females, and it is thought that this camouflages\u00a0 protects them from the dominant bulls.\u00a0 What is the auction price for one of the male Nyala?\u00a0 Prices ranged from R 6750 ($750) to R 13,500 ($1500); most sold in the R 7600 ($850) price range.<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Eland\"<\/a>The largest antelope on the African plains is the Eland (Taurotragus oryx<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0 Males can grow to a height of nearly 2 meters, and weigh in at nearly 900 kg (2000 lbs).\u00a0 This is one big antelope.\u00a0 Both sexes have a slight hump at the shoulders and a prominent dewlap, and the horns of both sexes slant backwards.\u00a0 At maturity, the horns may reach lengths of up to 1 meter!\u00a0 This antelope is special in that the herd congregates to provide a nursery for its young, with each female birthing a single calf, allowing for nutrition of all.\u00a0 These animals are susceptible to Heartwater, a disease of domesticated livestock, and individuals are sold that are guaranteed against the disease.\u00a0 At R 6600 ($735) per animal, diseased livestock could cost you some bucks.<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Zebra\"<\/a>Africa’s native horse, the zebra, is a staple of national parks and game reserves, alike.\u00a0 The common plains zebra, a browser, is the striped horse.\u00a0 Individuals were\u00a0 being sold at R 4000-4900 ($450-500 each), because the animals are very adaptable.\u00a0 Zebra thrive in a variety of habitats including grasslands, savannas, woodlands, thorny scrublands, mountains, and coastal hills.\u00a0 Either lots of only males or females were auctioned on this day, with the intent that the males would establish their own “harems” at their new reserve, or females would become a new “harem” wherever they were taken.<\/p>\n

\"GameSale_Buffalo\"<\/a>Although Rhino were up for sale, none were available for inspection due to the increasing number of poachers looking to take their horns for sale in the Chinese market.\u00a0 The largest animal on exhibit in the Boma was the African (Cape) Buffalo.\u00a0 This is one of the BIG FIVE<\/strong> and are\u00a0 found commonly in protected wildlife areas where there is sufficient water for their survival. Only young animals (3-8 years old), with “a lot of breeding left in [her] them,” were for sale.\u00a0 Mature animals can attain a height of 2 meters and males weigh in at up to 700 kg (1500 lb). Several animals did not sell, even though the asking price of R 180,000-280,00 ($20,000-$31,000) for\u00a0 pregnant females was below the reserve.\u00a0 Males sold for between R48,000 ($5300) and R 95,000 ($10,550), with a record sale of R 420,000 ($47,000) for Lot No. 80.<\/p>\n

\"GreaterFrontierAuction\"<\/a>The most expensive animal, though wasn’t the Rhino.\u00a0 Most owners see this animal as a bad investment because of the high potential to have it killed by poachers for its horn.\u00a0 Rather, to our surprise, the Golden Wildebeest (Gnu) saw the highest price. These animals were being auctioned off at a beginning bid of R 500,000 ($56,000), with no takers even when the price was reduced to R 320,000 ($36,000)!\u00a0 And, when a loud beeping was heard during the bidding for these animals, all the auctioneer could say was “You know its South Africa when you hear a car alarm go off.\u00a0 Someone’s been broken into.\u00a0 Good luck with that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you ever wonder where private game reserves and conservationists get their animals?\u00a0 Unlike Namibia, where the game runs wild and there are few, if any, fences, nearly the whole of South Africa is fenced.\u00a0 You can tell the difference … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":914,"parent":1264,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1318\/revisions\/1380"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}