Animals seen in the Botanical Garden

The garden is home to several species of animals. Up to 10 Bushbuck visit the garden virtually every night to browse and can sometimes be seen early in the morning. Tracks of grysbok also occur, but they have not been spotted so far. These buck "prune" our newly planted trees and especially go for young Proteas, which is interesting as they are not supposed to contain much protein or nourishment. On the whole the pruning is beneficial as it tends to make the bushes sturdier and when they do grow away they have more stems and thus more flowers, however as far as the trees go it is a problem as the grazing tends to force the trees to become shrubby with multi-stems instead of having a nice straight single stem.

Porcupines are attracted by the arum lilies which they can decimate overnight, and other bulbs. So in the garden setting they are not popular due to the holes they dig and the bulbs they eat.

Cape clawless otters have been spotted on their way from the nearby river to the dam and signs of their scats & crab shell leavings are seen. There are also many Turtles which have been seen laying their eggs in soft ground on the dam wall, unfortunately they probably also take swimming baby ducks or geese so we do not see these breed round the dam.

The occasional tortoise can be found wandering in the garden and some people seem to have set their tortoises free here, but they come and go and we just hope they do not end up in a cooking-pot!