MKUZE GAME RESERVE - WILDLIFE

 
Mkhuze is a place of great beauty and high contrasts and is renowned as a mecca for bird watchers with a bird list well in excess of four hundred. Predominantly flat and dry, with sandy ridges which are ancient dunes, it harbours an astonishing diversity of natural habitats. These range from the eastern slopes of the Lebombo mountains which lie along its western boundry, to broad stretches of gently rolling acacia savannah, swamps and a variety of woodlands and riverine forest.

The low lying hollows adjacent to the red sand dunes contain attractive groves of scented thorn which grow in clay soils. There is a substantial and rare sand forest found in the heart of the reserve, a habitat noted for its dark-leafed, wide spreading sherbert tree, and the red heart tree, which create a lovely sight in autumn with their pink winged seeds.

This diversity of habitats means a wide variety of animal species including black and white rhinoceros, elephant, giraffe, nyala, blue wildebeest, warthog, eland, hippo, impala, kudu and other smaller antelope. Rare species occurring in the reserve are cheetah, hyaena, suni and leopard. Three game viewing hides have been constructed next to the Kubube, Kamasinga, Kwamalibala pans.

Visitors park their cars and enter the hides on foot. Depending on the surface water in the reserve, but normally during the drier winter months,large concentrations of game may be seen at the waterholes. Visitors are therefore offered excellent views of most of the reserve’s larger mammals. These hides offer unique opportunities to photographers and many famous wildlife pictures have been taken there.