Best known are the mammals and the best known of these are the famous Big Five: Elephant Lion Rhino Leopard and Buffalo.
South Africa's Bushveld (bushland) and savannah regions are still home to large numbers of the mammals universally associated with Africa.
The Kruger National Park alone has over 9000 Elephants and 20000 buffaloes - in 1920 there were an estimated 120 elephants left in the whole of South Africa.
The white rhino has also been brought back from the
brink of extinction and now flourishes with a Kruger population of nearly 3000 and 1600 in the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal. Attention now is on
protecting the black rhino.
Both these parks are home to all five of the big ones as are other major reserves in South Africa - such as Pilanesberg in North West - and numerous smaller reserves and private game lodges.
The lion tops the food chain - and the glamour stakes.
But it does have one formidable enemy in people who have expelled it from most of the country so that it now remains almost exclusively in conservation areas.
The beautiful leopard survives in a larger area including much of the southern Cape and far north of the country although numbers are small in some places.
The third of the famous big cats is particularly fascinating. The cheetah is the speed champ capable of dashes of almost 100 kilometres an hour. However vulnerable to
the loss of cubs to other predators the cheetah's population is comparatively small and confined mostly
to the far north (including the Kruger National Park) the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape and
reserves in KwaZulu-Natal and North West.
Africa's Wildlife
• The Big Five Documentary
• The Big Cats Documentary
• More Iconic African wildlife Documentary
• Over 200 Mammal species Documentary
• Marine Mammals and fish Documentary
• The Crocodile and other reptiles Documentary
• Birdlife Documentary
