Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park covers about 19,500 square kilometres in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of north-eastern South Africa, stretching around 360 kilometres from north to south along the border with Mozambique. It is managed by South African National Parks (SANParks).

Parts of the area were first protected in 1898 by the government of the South African Republic, whose president Paul Kruger is regarded as the park's founder. James Stevenson-Hamilton became warden of the Sabi Game Reserve in 1902. The reserve was enlarged and proclaimed Kruger National Park on 31 May 1926. Since 2002 it has formed part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park with reserves in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

The park contains a wide range of habitats, from mopane woodland in the north to thorn thickets and grassland in the south, crossed by rivers such as the Sabie, Olifants, Letaba and Limpopo. It supports around 147 mammal species, including lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino, known together as the Big Five, along with cheetah, wild dog, giraffe and hippo.

Visitors can self-drive on tarred and gravel roads, join guided game drives, or stay in rest camps run by SANParks. A daily conservation fee applies, with lower rates for South African residents. Gates open and close at fixed times that change with the season, and speed limits are strictly enforced. The dry winter months from May to September make wildlife easier to spot.

What lives in Kruger, and how many people visit?

Beyond its 147 large mammal species, Kruger records 114 reptile species, 54 of them snakes, along with 34 amphibians, 49 fish, 219 butterflies and skippers and 350 arachnids. Around 13,750 elephants were counted in 2011. The park also holds about 12,000 of South Africa's roughly 22,000 white and black rhinos, which made it the centre of the poaching crisis; more than 520 rhinos were killed in the park in 2013 alone.

The park drew close to 2 million visitors in 2024.

In the far north, the Makuleke region shows a different side of the park's history. About 1,500 people were moved off the land in 1969. After a land claim covering 198 square kilometres, the land was returned to the community, which chose to earn income from tourism lodges there instead of resettling it.