SOUTH AFRICA: GAME PARK AUCTIONS SURPLUS ANIMALS
(20 Jun 1999) English/Nat
The biting cold of South Africa's winter has not detered scores of people from flocking to the Umfolozi Game Park to purchase wild animals.
The auction, which is the world's biggest animal sale, was held at the park in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal this weekend.
The animals didn't seem bothered by the unusual attention.
The world's biggest animal sale has netted just under two million U-S dollars this year.
Buyers were given two days to view the animals before the auction got under way on Saturday.
The event is held as a fund-raiser by the province's Nature Conservation Service, in which surplus animals are put under the hammer.
The first game auction was held in 1989 and the idea took off immediately with many of the animals being sent to reserves throughout the world.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The prime reason for the auction is a management tool. It is a way for us to dispose of surplus game animals. That's the primary reason for holding it. A very wonderful spin-off of course is the fact that we get a bit of money from the animals we sell. But a third reason for having it is that is enables members of the public to buy from us top quality animals to boost the quality of their own stocks on private property."
SUPER CAPTION: Jeff Gaisford, KwaZulu-Natal Conservation Service
The grand prize at the auction was a white rhino bull which went for 34-thousand dollars.
A female rhino and her calf fetched the top price of 45-thousand dollars.
On sale for the first time was a pair of hippo which sold for nearly eight-and-a-half thousand dollars.
Ostriches have become internationally sought after, and two were sold for 267 dollars each.
This year there were mainly local buyers at the auction who were looking to increase the stocks on their own farms, in order to be able to cash in on the foreign tourist market.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We are busy building our game lodge which will be ready within six months and then we will be advertising overseas and getting overseas tourists to come in which is very good for the country."
SUPER CAPTION: Elvin Krull, Private Game Farm Owner
Most foreign tourists visiting South Africa go to see the wildlife and the wide open spaces.
Eco-tourism is worth between two-and-a-half to three billion (b) dollars a year for the South African economy.
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