Just a few fun facts and tips to inspire a South African trip, motivate that delayed booking, or dazzle fellow adventurers! Click here for my specific Kruger Park experience at The Shishangeni Lodge.
- Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in Africa. Only a certain amount of visitors are allowed per day and camps are strategically placed at least an hour’s drive away from each other, so that there’s no overcrowding.
- Self drives, day trips, or booking with a guide or camp accommodation are all options.
- The southern section is allegedly better for wildlife sightings.
- Malaria medication is suggested in Kruger Park. Contact your doctor to hear the options and understand the side effects. Bug spray is recommended either way!
- Trucks have to stay on the roads on public safari land. Private reserves have more flexibility.
- There’s more to do in the park then game drives. There’s a golf course, hiking trails, picnic locations and your camp will likely have a pool, spa and amenities.
- Regardless of the time of year, it can get chilly at night and in the early mornings – often when it’s best to go on game drives
- Kruger is not a zoo. You are unlikely to see all the animals but thats what makes it exciting. Seeking out a lion or chasing a leopard’s trail is all in the drama of the safari.
- Safari originated from the Arabic word safara, meaning ‘a journey.’
ANIMAL FUN FACTS
- The Big 5 was the collective term given by hunters to five of the most dangerous animals to hunt. They include elephants, lions, Cape buffalo, the rhino and leopard.
- Elephants flap their ears to lower body temperature or because they are becoming aggressive.
- Elephant tusks are usually uneven. The shorter one is because they are left or right handed and always use that side when eating or playing.
- Lion cubs have spots when they are young.
- When lions are only 6-9 months, they begin to fight for dominance.
- Lionesses are the ones who hunt for food. Lions are lazy and wait for their meal to be served.
- Giraffes only sleep for 20 minutes, sitting and with their head up for blood flow.
- Hyenas are little thieves and steal kills or food from other animals.
- Rhino horns are removed from babies by park rangers to prevent poachers from killing the rhino for their horns.
- Giraffes will have neck fights, almost always to the death.
- Giraffe spots and zebra stripes are all unique to the animal.
- In the case of the zebra, the mother will shield her baby from other zebras until the baby can specifically recognize her stripes.
- Leopards are solitary creatives and notoriously difficult to find. They hide in bushes and trees to avoid detection.
- When a leopard makes a kill, they often pulls it up a tree so he doesn’t have to share.
- The zebra tails are constantly moving and meant to confuse predators.
- Wild dogs are the rarest of animals, with less than 300 in Kruger Park.
- An ostrich is the second fastest mammal in the world.
