Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. 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 Limpopo and Mpumalanga. 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 park has 8 main gates that allow entrance to the different camps. The names of these gates are Paul Kruger, Numbi, Malelane, Crocodile Bridge, Punda Maria, Orpen, Phabeni, Phalaborwa and Pafuri.

The park is the site of the popular eyewitness viral video Battle at Kruger.

History

The area that the park currently encompasses was occupied by nomadic hunter-gatherers for thousands of years. People from Europe arrived in the early eighteenth century.

Jakob Louis van Wyk introduced in the Volksraad of the old South African Republic, a motion to create the game reserve which would become the Kruger National Park. That motion, introduced together with another Volksraad member by the name of R. K. Loveday, and accepted for discussion in September of 1895 by a majority of one vote, resulted in the proclamation by Paul Kruger president of the Transvaal Republic, on March 26, 1898, of a “Government Wildlife Park.” This park would later be known as the Sabi Game Reserve and was expanded into the Kruger National Park in 1926.

The park was initially created to control hunting and protect the diminished number of animals in the park.

James Stevenson Hamilton became the first warden of the reserve in 1902. The reserve was located in the southern one-third of the modern park. Shingwedzi Reserve, now in northern Kruger National Park, was proclaimed in 1903.McNeely, Jeffrey A., International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 2001, The Great Reshuffling, IUCN, ISBN 2831706025. In 1926, Sabie Game Reserve, the adjacent Shingwedzi Game Reserve, and farms were combined to create Kruger National Park, which was opened for public visitors in 1927. During the apartheid era, the 1950 Group Areas Act and the 1953 Separate Amenities Act prevented black Africans from visiting South Africa's parks. In 2002, Kruger National Park, Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and Limpopo National Park in Mozambique were incorporated into the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

Geography

The park lies in the east of South Africa, in the eastern parts of Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. It is one of the largest national parks in the world, with an area of almost 20,000 km². The park is approximately 360 km long, and has an average width of 65 km. At its widest point, the park is 90 km wide from east to west. Several rivers run through the park from west to east, including the Sabie River.

Climate

The climate of the Kruger National Park and Lowveld is subtropical. Summer days are humid and hot with temperatures often soaring to above . The rainy season is from September until May. The dry winter season is the ideal time to visit this region for various reasons. There is less chance of contracting malaria and the days are milder. Viewing wildlife is more rewarding as the vegetation is more sparse and animals are drawn to the waterholes to drink every morning and evening.

Flora and fauna

Löwe im Kruger National Park.jpg

Plants

The Kruger National Park is divided into six eco-systems: Baobab sandveld, Mopane scrub, Lebombo knobthorn-marula bushveld, mixed acacia thicket, Combretum-silver clusterleaf woodland on granite and riverine forest. Altogether it has roughly 1,982 species of plants.

Birds

Out of the 517 species of birds found at Kruger, 253 are residents, 117 non-breeding migrants, and 147 nomads.

Mammals

All the Big Five game animals are found at Kruger National Park, which has more species of mammals than any other African Game Reserve (at 147 species). There are webcams set up to observe the wildlife.

, the park has counted approximately:

• 27,000 African Buffalo
• 350 African Hunting Dogs
• 350 Black Rhinoceros
• between 7000 and 12000 White Rhinoceros
• 17,797 Burchell's Zebras
• 500 Bushbucks
• 200 Cheetahs
• 300 Common Eland
• 5,114 Giraffes
• 5,798 Greater Kudus
• 3,000 Hippopotamus
• 1,500 Lions
• 1,000 Leopards
• 2,000 Spotted Hyenas
• 11,672 Elephants
• 5,000 Waterbuck
• 9,612 Blue Wildebeest
• 90,000 Impalas

The park stopped culling elephants in 1989 and tried translocating them, but by 2004 the population had increased to 11,670 elephants, by 2006 to approximately 13,500 and by 2009 to 11,672. 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.

Kruger supports packs of the endangered African Wild Dog, which canid is presently thought to number only about 400 animals within all of South Africa.

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.

Following approval by CITES, 47 metric tons of stockpiled ivory from Kruger were auctioned on November 6, 2008. The sale fetched approximately US$6.7 million which will be used towards increasing anti-poaching activity. The average price for the 63 lots on auction was US$142/kg.

Reptiles

Kruger houses 114 species of reptile, including 3000 crocodiles.

Accommodation

The Kruger National Park has 21 rest camps, as well as 7 private lodge concessions, and 11 designated private safari lodges. The concessions are parcels of land operated by private companies in partnership with communities, who outsource the operation of private lodges.

Wilderness trails

Nine different trails are on offer in the Kruger National Park. Some are overnight and the last several days in areas of wilderness are virtually untouched by humans. There are no set trails in the wilderness areas; a visitor walks along paths made by animals or seeks out new routes through the bush.

See also

• Abel Chapman
• Battle at Kruger
• Orpen Camp
• Peace park
• Protected areas of South Africa
• Skukuza

References

External links

• South African National Parks official website
  • Kruger National Park official website
  • Map of Kruger National Park
  • Webcams in the Kruger