Summer grazing

These summer colours contrast well against some of the winter pictures of the Kruger shown in this Album. Even the buffalo, dust washed off their coats, look blacker than in the dry season.

While the trees here are green with leaves in January, some patches of old dry grass from last season still persist. The many grass species found in South African grasslands hold widely variable palatability for grazers.

Some will be eaten once the favoured tastier ones are cropped short; others will be famine food only or be trampled. Where grass grows in inaccessible spots or is completely shunned by all, the old tufts may be left to rot, eventually weakening the plants, rendering annual new growth from the perennial underground component poor. Such new growth can simply not push through the dry mass retained above it. This may result in a decreasing cycle of regrowth over several years, or a change in the vegetation composition of the veld in favour of other species.