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| AFP |
Rangers in South Africa's
biggest wildlife park are killing about 350 hippos and buffalos in an attempt
to relieve the impact of a severe drought.
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Kruger sign
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The
national parks service says the numbers of hippos and buffalos in Kruger
National Park, about 7,500 and 47,000 respectively, are at their highest level
ever.
Meat
from the killed animals is being supplied to poor communities on the park's
perimeter.
Parks
service spokesman Ike Phaahla says the two species consume large amounts of
vegetation and that many of the animals are expected to die anyway because of
the drought.
The
southern Africa drought has been called the worst in 35 years.
A drought in the early 1990s reduced Kruger's buffalo population by more than half to about 14,000, but the population rebounded.
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