Mapesu Private Game Reserve
| Mapesu Private Game Reserve | |
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 Location of the reserve
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| Location | Limpopo, South Africa |
| Nearest city | Musina |
| Coordinates | 22°15′S 29°12′E / 22.250°S 29.200°ECoordinates: 22°15′S 29°12′E / 22.250°S 29.200°E |
| Area | 72 square kilometres (28 sq mi) |
| Established | 2014 |
| mopanebushlodge |
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Mapesu Private Game Reserve is a game reserve in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The reserve adjoins the Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site, with which it shares a 12.5 km Northern border. The main entrance gate to the reserve is located approximately 7 km east of Mapungubwe's entrance gate. It was established in 2014 and covers an area of over 7,200 hectares. The reserve protects various bird, mammal and tree species and is slated to become part of the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area in phase 2 as part of the proposed Limpopo Valley Game Reserve.
Mapesu Private Game Reserve is well known for its endless seas of mopane trees and for housing a 4-star lodge, Mopane Bush Lodge.
The numerous habitat types have resulted in high species diversity.
Mapesu Private Game Reserve falls within the Savanna bioregion and more specifically the Musina Mopane Bushveld vegetation type according to Mucina & Rutherford (2006). This vegetation type has also been classified as the Mopane Veld Type by Acocks (1953) and as Mopane Bushveld by Low & Rabelo (1996). Its distribution ranges between the Limpopo River and the Soutpansberg Mountain Range and from Baines Drif and Alldays in the west to Masisi and Tshipise in the east. This vegetation type is described by Mucina & Rutherford (2006) as undulating to very irregular plains with open woodland to moderately closed shrubland dominated by Colophospermum mopane on the clayey bottomlands and Combretum apiculatum on the hills. The areas with deep sandy soils are characterised by moderately open savanna, again dominated by Colophospermum mopane.
Vegetation types are further broken down into more specific plant or vegetation communities. Superficially the Mapesu vegetation seems to be homogenous, however the plant communities are in fact extremely multifarious as a result of the diverse geographical and soil character and the complex system of drainage lines that run through the property. After satellite images and aerial photographs of the area were examined, thorough investigation by road and foot revealed that Mapesu comprises 13 vegetation communities. These were classified on the basis of their dominant plant species, vegetation structure and obvious biophysical and geological features.
Apart from the dominant mopane vegetation other tree species also occur, these include the locally distributed vlei thorn, three hook thorn, num num, purple cluster leaf, fever trees, camel thorn, sweet thorn, shepherds tree, illala palm, apple leaf and lead wood amongst many others.
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