The City of Cape Town, in partnership with the Cape Town Environmental Education Trust (CTEET), officially released five eland into the False Bay Nature Reserve – after an absence of more than 200 years.
Following their seven-week stay in a boma at the Rondevlei Section of the False Bay Nature Reserve, five eland have officially been released into the reserve to rediscover their historical roots.
The three-year Gantouw Project is a partnership between the City, which is responsible for managing 16 nature reserves and various natural areas across the city, and the CTEET, the project initiator and manager.
Two males and three females have been tamed and raised as part of the pilot project, which will be investigating the impact of the world’s largest antelope on the veld. The eland will roam freely during the day but will be returned to the boma at night.
Staff will accompany the eland to ensure their safety and to monitor what they feed on. They will also assess how practical it would be to mimic the natural migration of a herd of eland in nature reserves in Cape Town.
Cape Town was historically home to the eland, but they have been missing from the Cape Flats for over 200 years.
The absence of eland over the past few hundred years have led to an increase in the shrub component of natural areas in Cape Town. This has changed what should have been an open habitat into a closed dense thicket, resulting in the shrinking of populations and disappearance of certain plant and animal species that are adapted to the open habitat.
As Cape Town has some of the highest concentrations of endangered plants on earth, the re-establishment of large herbivores in the remaining natural fragments is vital for the conservation of species and ecosystems.
‘The opening of the boma gates today marks a new beginning for the conservation of our species and ecosystems at our nature reserves. With eland being officially released into the nature reserve, eventually their browsing will impact on the natural vegetation, which will see their historical migration patterns being re-established, and this may also lead to the restoration and conservation of plants and ecosystems.
‘If this pilot project proves to be successful, it may be considered in future as an ongoing management tool at nature reserves on the Cape Flats. The City is very proud to be playing its part in bringing back these iconic animals. Through this partnership we are working towards a common goal of protecting, conserving and restoring our natural heritage, including the species and ecosystems at our nature reserves,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Environmental and Spatial Planning, Councillor Johan van der Merwe.
WHERE: False Bay Nature Reserve, Zeekoei Vlei, Cape Town 7941
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For more information on the City’s nature reserves, please visit
