About

Wildlife in the Area

Species diversity and endemism

Only a few areas within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park have been intensively surveyed for biodiversity attributes. The information provided here is therefore based on minimum species richness and endemic status known for specific areas of the Transfrontier Park, and therefore reflect the minimum biodiversity present.

Mammals

A total of 147 species are known from the area, of which none are endemic. However, aside from a localised population around Pretoria in South Africa, Juliana's Golden mole Amblysomus julianae is only known from a few specimens collected from the Pretoriuskop area in the Kruger National Park. Currently the Kruger Park is also one of the last areas anywhere in the world to hold significant and viable populations of Wild dog Lycaon pictus, having some 300 individuals in total. The population of 3 000 white rhino Ceratotherium simum present in the Kruger Park is the biggest anywhere, while the 300 black rhino Diceros bicornis is the second largest population. Both these species are increasing steadily and increased range opportunities into Mozambique and Zimbabwe will enhance the conservation of these threatened animals, as also for the endangered wild dogs. One as yet undescribed new species of Eptesicus bat is known from the Kruger Park. A number of rare antelope species representing unique gene pools are also largely localised within the TFCA area, such as roan antelope Hippotragus equinus, sable Hippotragus niger and tsessebe Damaliscus lunatus.

Other significant populations of mammals in the Kruger National Park include 1,500 lions, 2,000 spotted hyaenas, 8,320 elephants, 32,000 Burchell's zebra, 2,200 hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius), 5,000 giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis), 1,500 warthogs (Phacochoerus aethiopicus), 17,000 buffaloes (Syncerus caffer), 3,500 kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), 1,500 waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus), 14,000 blue wildebeest and over 100,000 impala. Other ungulates include eland, nyala (Tragelaphus angasii), bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus, roan, sable, tsessebe, steenbok, mountain reedbuck (Redunca fulvorufula), Sharpe's grysbok, klipspringer, suni (Neotragus moschatus), oribi (Ourebi ourebi), red duiker (Cephalophus natalensis) and common duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia). Within the park alone are 18 Red Data Book mammal species.

Birds

A total of 505 species of birds are known from the Kruger National Park, but a small number of additional species is likely to be present in the Mozambican and Zimbabwean portions of the Transfrontier Park. None of the KNP species are endemic.

Reptiles

At least 116 species of reptiles are known from the Transfrontier Park area. Included amongst these are two near-endemic species: Nucras caesicaudata (blue-tailed sandveld lizard) and Monopeltis decosteri (De Coster's spade-snouted worm lizard).

Plants

At least 2 000 species of plants have been recorded from the area, none of which are confined exclusively to the Transfrontier Park.

Fish

Forty nine species of fish are known from the area. Three species deserve special conservation status because of their rarity and limited distribution, these being the two small seasonal pan inhabitants Nothobranchius orthonotus and Nothobranchius rachovii, as well as the lungfish Protopterus annectens.

Amphibia

Thirty four species of frogs are known from the area. The Sandveld Pyxie Tomopterna krugerensis was discovered within the Kruger Park and has its main area of distribution within the Transfrontier Park area, although also recorded from Kwazulu-Natal.