THE CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY AND LANDSCAPES: IS SUSTAINABLE USE AN OPTION?
“We are particularly interested in the web of interactions within a biodiverse environment.”
As a couple, we have an intense interest in the outdoors and in nature. We are particularly interested in the web of interactions within a biodiverse environment, for example:
» how plants produce tannins and terpines to ward of browsers and how these animals in turn respond to these chemical defence mechanisms.
» how parasites manipulate their hosts either plant and animal, for example gall-forming insects and cestodes.
Drs Peter and Pamela Oberem are both veterinarians with an intense interest in biology and the dynamic interactions within the biodiversity of nature. Peter has a degree in zoology and entomology and a postgraduate degree in veterinary parasitology. Pamela also has a postgraduate veterinary degree in veterinary microbiology.
Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/xRCWnEflITgto watch the video: ‘Afrivet: GAMEMIN BROWSE'.
HISTORY OF DABCHICK WILDLIFE RESERVE
Late in 1993 we found a 406ha property in the Alma Valley, Limpopo. We fell in love with it when we opened the creaky old wooden doors of a tiny, dusty, self-built house and a barn owl flew out. Another attraction was the diverse habitats, viz. vlei, grassland (old land), bushveld and mountain.
The property, which we called Dabchick Wildlife Reserve, as these were the first birds we saw in abundance on the dams, had old watermelon and maize lands but at that time was used as a cattle farm. It was badly overgrazed and covered mainly with pioneer grasses (ʻsteekgrasʼ that made it most uncomfortable to wear socks), Lantana camara and thatch grasses. We began by fencing it with a typical game fence and rewilding (although this was an unknown term at the time).
To our delight, we discovered that there were warthog (of course), bushpig, bush babies, a pair of southern reed buck and the odd itinerant kudu already on the farm.
We introduced animals from ARC, run at
