WILDLIFE

KwaZulu-Natal has an astonishing array of wildlife. This province has diverse and spectacular landscapes with a wealth of plant and animal species to match. Encompassing the sub-tropical abundance of the swamp forests, the mangroves and some of the highest forested coastal dunes in the world; evocative dry sandforest and bushveld; lakes and wetlands; grasslands, mistbelt forests and montane species living on the slopes of the Drakensberg Mountains.

Aardwolf African Wildcat Banded Mongoose Blackbacked Jackal Black Rhino Blesbok Black Wildebeest Bat-eared Fox Blue Duiker Brown Hyaena Buffalo Burchell`s Zebra Bushpig Bushbuck Cape Fox Caracal Cheetah Clawless Otter Civet Common Reedbuck Dwarf Mongoose Eland Elephant Giraffe Grey Rhebuck Grey Duiker Hippopotamus Impala Klipspringer Kudu Large-spotted Genet Leopard Lion Mountain Reedbuck Nyala Oribi Red Duiker Ratel Red Hartebeest Roan Serval Sidestriped Jackal Small-spotted Genet Springbok Steenbok Striped Polecat Striped Weasel Sable Slender Mongoose Spotted Hyaena Spotted-neck Otter Suni Turtle Green Turtle Leatherback Turtle Loggerhead Tsessebe Waterbuck White Rhino Warthog Water Mongoose Wild Dog Yellow Mongoose.
 
Within 160 km the topography ranges from sea level to over 3000m in the Drakensberg - the moisture catching escarpment deeply incised by rivers, more rivers than any comparable area in southern Africa, that flow to the coast and the warm Mozambique current.

Sub-tropical conditions prevail in the northern coastal areas, frost and mist in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands and snow and ice in winter on the mountain peaks. Rain falls mostly in summer.

KwaZulu-Natal offers varied wildlife experiences ranging from wilderness trails in the Imfolozi Game Reserve (walking in White Rhino country), to sitting quietly in a hide at Mkhuze Game Reserve watching the natural world parade past. The Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, where your trail takes you into the territories of the hippopotamus and crocodile, has been internationally recognised for its species diversity.

You can be part of the scents, sights and sounds of the African bush from the comfort of your vehicle, on foot in the wilderness or from the verandah of your well-appointed chalet.