Addo Elephant Park
Addo Elephant Park was proclaimed in 1931 to protect the last few wild elephants roaming the area. It is now home to over 350 elephants and numerous other species. Addo Elephant Park has been so successful that it became overcrowded, a policy of acquiring adjacent land has been introduced and the new Greater Addo National Park will soon cover 1.2 million acres (492,000 ha) making it one of South Africa’s larger parks
Addo is now a very unusual park as the terrain varies from the dense inland valley bushveld of the Sundays River, all the way to the sea. It also includes a 296,500 acre (120,000 ha) marine reserve encompassing islands containing Africa's largest populations of penguins and gannets.
This park is one of the few places on earth boasting the 'Big 7'; elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard, rhinos, whales and great white shark!
Apart from Elephant , black-backed jackal are commonly seen in Addo, and evenings are punctuated by their strident howls. Cape buffalo, black rhino, kudu, eland, red hartebeest and springbok all graze on their preferred grasses or foliage and highly adaptable leopard are there but rarely seen..
With the park now stretching to the shores of the Indian Ocean, whales and dolphins swell the viewing opportunities.
Addo’s birding opportunities are accentuated by the contrasting habitats of dense thickets interspersed with open grassy areas and wooded kloofs. Look out for martial and crowned eagles, olive bush shrikes, yellowthroated warblers, Cape batis, black korhaan and secretary birds.