Addo Elephant Park History

Addo Elephant Park Area

South Africa

Addo Elephant Park History

"If ever there was a hunter's hell here it was a hundred square miles or so of all you would think bad in Central Africa, lifted up as by some Titan and planked [sic] down in the Cape Province." The words of Major P.J. Pretorius in his book, Jungle Man.

This was the Addo Bush, where in 1919, he was employed to eliminate the elephants and to resolve, for all time the contest between agriculturalist and game animals. Pretorius, last of the legendary great hunters, killed 120 elephants before the survivors – about 11 animals – fled to the impenetrable area known as Harvey's Bush.

The "hunter's hell", between the Zuurberg and the Sundays River Valley, was proclaimed as a National Park in 1931 and this approximate 2 000 hectares formed the nucleus of the current Addo Elephant National Park.

The Addo Elephant Park - Early Days

Addo Elephant Park Video