Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park is a vast protected area located approximately 260 miles northeast of Johannesburg, South Africa, covering around 4.94 million acres. Renowned for its incredible biodiversity, the park is home to a variety of wildlife, including the African Big Five: lions, leopards, black rhinoceroses, African bush elephants, and African buffalo. Visitors can also see numerous other animals such as hippos, giraffes, cheetahs, and various rare birds. Established in 1898, Kruger National Park has evolved into a significant tourist destination, attracting about 950,000 visitors annually, primarily from South Africa. The best time to visit is during the dry season from April to September, when wildlife spotting is optimal due to reduced vegetation. However, the park faces challenges such as poaching, particularly of rhinos, which make up about 30 percent of the world's rhino population found within its boundaries. Efforts are ongoing to combat poaching threats and protect the park's rich natural heritage. With its stunning landscapes and rich cultural history, including over 250 cultural and archaeological sites, Kruger National Park remains a vital conservation area and a must-visit for wildlife enthusiasts.
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Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park is a natural protected area about 260 miles northeast of Johannesburg, South Africa. The park spans 4.94 million acres and offers tourists some of the best access to wild animals on the continent. Some of the animals that reside in the park include buffalo, elephants, leopards, lions, rhinoceroses, Nile crocodiles, hippos, giraffes, cheetahs, impala, warthogs, zebras, hyenas, antelopes, African wild dogs, and rare birds like southern ground hornbill and lappet-faced vulture. The park is also home to many different landscapes and eco-zones ranging from grasslands to tropical forests. Some of the plant life that can be found here are the giant baobab, along with fever and marula trees. Kruger National Park is popular for tourists because it is home to the African Big Five—lion, leopard, black rhinoceros, African bush elephant, and African buffalo. It is ranked as the top place in the world to spot a leopard in the wild. The park also is home to roughly 30 percent of the world’s rhinos, but rangers constantly work to counter poaching threats.
Background
Kruger National Park was introduced in 1898 as the Sabie Game Reserve by then-president of the Trasvaal Republic, Paul Kruger. (The Transvaal was one of the provinces of South Africa from 1910 to 1994.) Kruger proposed the need to protect the area’s animals in 1884, but it took twelve years for his vision to come to fruition when the area between the Sabie and Crocodile Rivers was set aside for restricted hunting. On July 1, 1902, James Stevenson-Hamilton became the park’s first warden. On May 31, 1926, the National Parks Acts was proclaimed. At this time, the Sabie and Shingwedzi Game Reserves were merged to form Kruger National Park.
The idea of tourism was discussed during the park’s first board meeting on September 16, 1926. In order to promote tourism and earn revenue, the board decided that a main road, along with various secondary roads, would be built for game-viewing opportunities. Guides would accompany tourists, who would pay for the experience. The board also decided another fee would be required for taking photographs in the park. Kruger National Park first welcomed tourists in 1927 in its Pretoriuskop area. Tourists were required to obtain a permit, and had to return on the same day, as there were no overnight facilities available. Construction of rest camps started in 1929 and continued into 1930. In 1931, tents were provided, and rest camps were constructed in the following years. In 1948, the park appointed its first tourism manager, H.C. van der Veen.
Kruger is home to about 250 cultural sites and nearly 130 rock art sites, which point to early occupation history. There is evidence that a pre-historic hominid, Homo erectus, roamed the area between 500,000 and 10,000 years ago. Evidence of Stone Age humans date back to between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago—more than three hundred archaeological sites of Stone Age man have been found in Kruger. There is evidence of Bushman Folk (San) and Iron Age people from about 1,500 years ago. The park is also home to the Albasini and Masorini ruins, where Portuguese colonists once traded metal products, beads, and clothing with the local Indigenous Ba-Phalaborwa group.
Overview
Each year, about 950,000 people visit Kruger National Park. South Africans account for 80 percent of visitors. It is ranked as the number 9 best place to visit in Africa and the number 11 best national park in the world, according to U.S. News & World Report’s travel rankings. The park has several hotels, including the Silonque Bush Estate, Kruger Park Lodge, and Lukimbi Safari Lodge. Tourists can go on game drives, safari tours, river and bush walks, and more. The best time to visit the park is at the beginning or the end of the region’s dry season between April and September, as vegetation is sparse (making it easier to see animals) and the weather is pleasant.
Kruger National Park is home to Africa’s Big Five—lion, leopard, black rhinoceros, African bush elephant, and African buffalo—along with a variety of other wildlife including Nile crocodiles, hippos, giraffes, cheetahs, impala, warthogs, zebras, hyenas, antelopes, African wild dogs, and rare birds like southern ground hornbills and lappet-faced vultures. More than 12,000 elephants; 27,000 African buffalo; 2,000 leopards; 4,000 rhinos; and 2,800 lions call the park home. The park is the most likely place in the world to see a leopard in the wild.
By 2023, the park was home to about 1,850 white rhinos and 210 black rhinos. This accounts for 30 percent of the world’s rhino population, but Kruger’s rhino numbers have dropped by about 70 percent due to poaching and drought. However, poaching numbers have gradually started to decrease after a spike in 2014, when more than eight hundred rhinos were killed.
In April 2021, Kruger’s animal residents entered the news cycle when elephants trampled a suspected rhino poacher to death. Several other poaching suspects were arrested by authorities at that time. The arrests were part of an ongoing campaign to stop poaching within the park. In 2019, another poaching attempt in Kruger turned deadly when a suspected poacher was killed by an elephant and devoured by lions. Park officials later found the poacher’s skull and pants.
In addition to poaching threats, extreme weather events also threaten the park’s plant and animal life. One of biggest challenges is lack of water due to longer dry spells and hotter temperatures. Drought has seriously threatened rhinos, elephants, and lions in the park and across Africa.
In 2020, amid COVID-19 lockdowns, the park made news when lions started taking naps on the roadways. Images by park ranger Richard Sowry circulated online after the park released them on social media. The park said that the area where the lions were lying would generally be busy with tourists—this traffic normally pushes the lions into the bush. However, park spokesman Isaac Phaahla said that the lockdown did not lead to many changes in animal behavior across Kruger. The COVID pandemic did lead to a significant drop in rhino poaching, but numbers started to rise again as restrictions began lifting.
Despite the best efforts of park officials and rangers, rhino populations at Kruger continued to decline through the 2020s. 195 rhinos were lost to poaching in 2021, and an additional 95 were lost in 2022. This resulted in a total rhino population decline of roughly 16 percent.
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