It is believed that these Khoi herders may have pushed the San into the more marginal mountain and as a result changed the fire regime through regular patch-burning.
[1] By the end of the eighteenth century, European farmers occupied the lower-lying foothills and valley lands and used the mountains for grazing.
This practice of burning vegetation to provide pasture was continued until the introduction of fire protection areas in the late nineteenth century.
[2] The Kammanassie Mountains was formed as a result of north-south oriented compressive stress during the Cape Orogeny 123-200 million years ago.
[2] The Kammanassie Mountain is one of the prominent east-west trending ranges composing the southern branch of the Cape Fold Belt.
It was formed as a result of north-south oriented compressive stress during the Cape Orogeny 123-200 million years ago.
Soils generally form a thin (<1 m) veneer of silty sands/sandy silts as a result of the steepslopes of the Kammanassie Mountain and predominantly quartzitic rocks.
These two east to west flowing rivers drain the eastern section of the Klein Karoo and their confluence is south-east of Oudtshoorn.
[3] The Kammanassie Catchment Area is an important source of water for the agricultural activities located adjacent to the mountain and in the Olifants River valley.
Other important rivers include: The reserve receives rain throughout the year with an average annual rainfall of approximately 450 mm.
Indigenous large mammal species known to have occurred historically in the Klein Karoo area, but which are not present on the Kammanassie Nature Reserve are Buffalo (Synceruscaffer), Eland (Taurotragus oryx) and Lion (Panthera leo).
As a result of hunting and competition with farmers for grazing, however, they were driven to the verge of extinction such that by 1950, fewer than 100 individuals of this species survived.
These springs supply a constant source of clean drinking water for numerous different animal species on the Kammanassie Nature Reserve.
Cape Mountain Zebra numbers are monitored opportunistically with sightings being recorded in the State Of Biodiversity database.
The scheme, which is currently managed by Oudtshoorn Municipality abstracts approximately 1.1 million m³ groundwater per annum.
Numerous springs on the Kammanassie Nature Reserve have dried up and the vegetation in the Vermaaks River Valley started showing signs of water stress.
Some farmers have also had to cease their farming activities due to their main water supply drying up or being drastically reduced.
Several attempts to address this problem have been made by CapeNature - through having meetings with Oudtshoorn Municipality, Dept of Water Affairs and other stakeholders - but have had little to no effect.