Traveling in wildlife reserves in South Africa

Abstract

[Extract] South Africa is a burgeoning tourist destination, with 5,732,049 international visitors during 1998.1 A prime attraction is the opportunity to observe Africa's magnificent mammals in the wild. Wildlife tourism takes place mainly in National Parks, provincial and private Nature Reserves, and Private Game Reserves. The principal tourist activities are self-drive wildlife viewing from vehicles, wildlife viewing from vehicles driven by field guides, or walking under the guidance and protection of a field guide. The principal national parks or wildlife reserves in South Africa are shown in Figure 1. In 1998, about 950,000 tourists visited the Kruger National Park (KNP),1 which at 1.949 million hectares, is the largest wildlife or nature reserve in a single African country. The Kruger National Park is also the only park in South Africa, and one of the relatively few in Africa, which hosts abundant numbers of the so-called "big five" species — elephants, rhino (both black and white), buffalo, lion, and leopard.