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Kruger National Park
 
 
     Where nearly 2 million hectares of unrivalled diversity of life forms fuses with historical and archaeological sights – this is real Africa.
 
     Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa . It is roughly the same size as Wales . It covers 18,989 square km (7,332 sq mi) and extends 350 km (217 mi) from north to south and 60 km (37 mi) from east to west.
 
      To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo . In the north is Zimbabwe , and to the east is Mozambique . It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park , a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique
 

      The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere, an area designated by the United Nations Education and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere").

 
      The world-renowned Kruger National Park offers a wildlife experience that ranks with the best in Africa. Established in 1898 to protect the wildlife of the South African Lowveld, this national park of nearly 2 million hectares, SAN Parks - Kruger National Park is unrivalled in the diversity of its life forms and a world leader in advanced environmental management techniques and policies
 
      Truly the flagship of the South African national parks, Kruger is home to an impressive number of species: 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals. Man's interaction with the Lowveld environment over many centuries - from bushman rock paintings to majestic archaeological sites like Masorini and Thulamela - is very evident in the Kruger National Park. These treasures represent the cultures, persons and events that played a role in the history of the Kruger National Park and are conserved along with the park's natural assets.
 
 

As of 2004 the park has counted approximately:

•  25,150 African Buffalo

•  200 African Hunting Dogs

•  350 Black Rhinoceros

•  32,000 Burchell's Zebras

•  500 Bushbucks

•  200 Cheetahs

•  300 Common Eland

•  9,000 Giraffes

•  5,000 Greater Kudus

•  3,000 Hippopotamus

•  over 170,000 Impalas .

•  1,000 Leopards

•  2,000 Lions

•  160 Mountain Reedbucks

•  300 Nyalas

•  300 Reedbucks

•  60 Roan Antelopes

•  550 Sable Antelopes

•  11,670 Savannah Elephants

•  2,000 Spotted Hyenas

•  200 Tsessebes

•  3,800 Warthogs

•  5,000 Waterbucks

•  5,000 White Rhinoceros

•  17,000 Blue Wildebeest
 

     The park stopped culling elephants in 1989 and tried translocating them, but by 2004 the population had increased to 11,670 elephants. (2006: ? 13.500.) The park's habitats can only sustain about 8,000 elephants. The park started using annual contraception in 1995, but has stopped that due to problems with delivering the contraceptives, and upsetting the herds.
 

      The Kruger National Park holds over 48 tons of ivory in storage. According to Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), it is allowed to sell 30 tons.
 
 

Reptiles, fish, and amphibians

     There are 120 species of reptile , including approximately 5,000 Nile Crocodiles , 52 species of fish , and 35 species of amphibians .

 

Did you know?

•  The park was first proclaimed in 1898 as the Sabie Game Reserve by the then president of the Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger. He first proposed the need to protect the animals of the Lowveld in 1884, but his revolutionary vision took another 12 years to be realised when the area between the Sabie and Crocodile Rivers was set aside for restricted hunting.

•  James Stevenson-Hamilton (born in 1867) was appointed the park's first warden on 1 July 1902.

•  On 31 May 1926 the National Parks Act was proclaimed and with it the merging of the Sabie and Shingwedzi Game Reserves into the Kruger National Park.
The first motorists entered the park in 1927 for a fee of one pound.

•  Many accounts of the park's early days can be found in the Stevenson-Hamilton Memorial Library.

•  There are almost 254 known cultural heritage sites in the Kruger National Park, including nearly 130 recorded rock art sites.

•  There is ample evidence that prehistoric man – Homo erectus roamed the area between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago

•  Cultural artifacts of Stone Age man have been found for the period 100,000 to 30,000 years ago.

•  More than 300 archaeological sites of Stone Age man have been found

•  Evidence of Bushman Folk (San) and Iron Age people from about 1500 years ago is also in great evidence.

•  There are also many historical tales of the presence of Nguni people and European explorers and settlers in the Kruger area.

•  There are significant archaeological ruins at Thulamela and Masorini

•  There are numerous examples of San Art scattered throughout the park