Atherstone Nature Reserve

Atherstone Collaborative Nature Reserve, also known as the Atherstone Nature Reserve, is a 23,500 hectare reserve situated near Dwaalboom in Limpopo, a province of South Africa. The reserve consists mainly of vast savannah plains with bushveld and Kalahari grasslands ecosystems. Besides antelope, zebra and giraffes, the south-central black rhinoceros and African bush elephants are some of the highlights of Atherstone.

History

Norman Edward Atherstone, who was originally a cattle farmer, became the first game farmer in this area and did much to re-introduce some game on his farmland, which was to become Atherstone Game Reserve. He never had a wife nor children and, in his last will, he donated his farms to the former Transvaal Nature Conservation Department. In 1990 the Atherstone Nature Reserve was founded; it became the Atherstone Collaborative Nature Reserve in 1994, after some private farms were also incorporated into the reserve.

Animals

The following list of animals were taken from a pamphlet of the nature reserve and from iNaturalist observations.
Common animal species found in the reserve:

Buffalo	Caracal	Cheetah	Duiker–grey	Eland	Elephant
Gemsbuck	Genet	Giraffe	Hartebeest-red	Hyena–brown	Impala
Jackal-black-backed	Kudu	Leopard	Monkey-vervet	Rhino-black	Rhino-white
Sable antelope	Steenbok	Tsessebe	Warthog	Waterbuck	Wildebeest-blue
Zebra

Common bird species found in the reserve:

Ostrich	Hamerkop	Hadeda ibis	African spoonbill	Whitefaced duck	Knobbilled duck
Egyptian goose	Secretary bird	Cape vulture	Lappet-faced vulture	White-backed vulture	Tawny eagle
Wahlberg's eagle	Martial eagle	Brown snake eagle	Black-breasted snake eagle	Bateleur	African fish eagle
Dark chanting goshawk	Gabar goshawk	Crested francolin	Swainson's francolin	Common quail	Melba finch
Helmeted guineafowl	Blue waxbill	Violet-eared waxbill	White-browed sparrow weaver	Paradise whydah	Kori bustard
Lesser masked weaver	Black korhaan	Redcrested korhaan	Crowned plover	Blacksmith plover	Spotted dikkop
Double-banded sandgrouse	Rock pigeon	Red-eyed dove	Cape turtle dove	Laughing dove	Namaqua dove
Green-spotted dove	Grey loerie	Jacobin cuckoo	Diederik cuckoo	Burchell's coucal	Barn owl
White-faced owl	Pearl-spotted owlet	Flernecked nightjar	Rufous-cheeked nightjar	European bee-eater	Little bee-eater
Blue-cheeked bee-eater	European roller	Purple roller	Lilac-breasted roller	Hoopoe	Grey hornbill
Southern yellow-billed hornbill	Southern red-billed hornbill	Pied barbet	European swallow	Fork-tailed drongo	Pied crow
Brown-hooded kingfisher	Titbabbler	Puffback	Long-billed crombec	Wattled starling	Burchell's starling
Groundscraper thrush	Marico sunbird	Red-billed oxpecker			-