the great karoo used to support a large variety of antelope (particularly the springbok), the quagga, and other large game, especially on the grassy flats in the east. francois le vaillant, the famous french explorer, naturalist, and ornithologist, who traveled through the great karoo in the 1780s, killed a hippopotamus in the great fish river in the karoo (and ate its foot for breakfast). he also recorded that he saw the spoor of a rhinoceros near cranemere, in the camdeboo plains (eastern lower karoo). elephant tusks have been found by farmers in the camdeboo district, but no records exist of any having been seen alive in that region.