Addo Elephant Park - Fauna

Home of the socalled “Big 7” the Park’s 164 000 hectares stretches over 5 biomes, from the vast Darlington Lake, across the breathtaking Zuurberg Mountains, through the pristine dense valley bushveld of the beautiful Sundays River Valley to the lush green indigenous forests at Woody Cape, which hug the largest coastal dune fields in the Southern Hemisphere, ending in the Park’s marine area at Bird Island and St Croix Island.

The "Big 7" refers to the well known "Big Five" namely the Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Leopard, as well as the Great White Shark and the Southern Right Whale.

The Addo Elephant National Park offers some of the most spectacular elephant viewing in the world. Addo’s over 450 elephants will delight visitors with their antics.

The park contributes to the conservation of the endangered black rhino with over 48 of these animals occurring here.

The over 400 Cape buffalo are now being seen more often during the day due to the influence of lion reintroduction. This is one of the largest disease-free herds in South Africa.

Six lions were introduced into the park in late 2003 and have adapted well to their new environment. Lions are most often seen in the early morning or on sunset and night drives.

Spotted hyenas were also reintroduced in 2003, fulfilling the same role as lions in restoring the natural balance to the ecosystems in the park by controlling the numbers of herbivores.

Leopard are very seldom seen, being shy and secretive animals, but do occur in most areas of the expanded park.

Antelope species abundant in the main game area of the park include red hartebeest, eland, kudu and bushbuck.

The Burchell’s zebra, many with the pale rumps reminiscent of the extinct qwagga, occur in the park.

Warthogs are abundant.

The rare flightless dung beetle is king of the road in Addo, with signs warning visitor that this recycling machine has right of way. The beetles are only seen when conditions are not too hot and not too cold and play an important role in recycling nutrients and helping the growth of thicket vegetation.

The outlying areas of the park have very different animals on offer:

Zuurberg mountain range is home to the Cape mountain zebra, mountain reedbuck, baboons, blue duiker, aardwolf and red rock rabbit.
Hippos are found in the Sundays River which flows at the base of these mountains. Endemics such as the red fin minnow and yellowfish are found in the tributaries of the river.
Gemsbok, black wildebeest, springbok, buffalo and black rhino are found in the arid nama-karoo around the Darlington Dam area. Once this area has been consolidated, cheetah and wild dog will be introduced.
The coastal forest is home to bushbuck, bushpig, brown hyena and the rare tree dassie.

Birds

Addo's birding opportunity covers excellent habitat contrasts between dense thickets of spekboom interspersed with open grassy areas and wooded kloofs (particularly in the Zuurberg region). Now that the park has expanded to include Darlington Lake , Woody Cape , the coastal islands and the Alexandria Forest , a variety of other habitats swell the birding potential of the park.

In and around the Addo rest camp Karoo Scrub Robin and Cape Robin-Chat , Bokmakierie, Southern Tchagra, Bar-throated Apalis and Cape Bunting are prominent, with Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Fiscal Flycatcher, Fork-tailed Drongo, Spectacled Weaver, Malachite and Greater Double-collared Sunbird also easily found. A trip into the game viewing area will not produce a plethora of birds, but Bokmakierie will once more be prominent, and Martial Eagle, Black Korhaan, Blue Crane, Denham's Bustard, Black-headed Heron and Secretarybird may well be seen.
In the wooded kloofs of the Zuurberg, African Crowned Eagles breed. Forest species typical of the Eastern Cape, such as Olive Bush Shrike, Yellowthroated Woodland-Warbler and Cape Batis can also be searched for.
Alexandria Forest has many forest species, such as Knysna Turaco, Black Cuckoo (summer only), Grey Cuckoo-shrike, Chorister Robin-chat, Dark-backed Weaver and the spectacular Narina Trogon.
The coastal grasslands South of Alexandria Forest are home to exciting species such as Denham's Bustard (with impressive displaying during summer) and Black-winged Plover.
The coastal islands have impressive breeding colonies of Cape Gannet and African Penguin and it is one of the few South African breeding locations for Roseate Tern.
In the summer months at the Sundays River Mouth there are large tern roosts that include Swift, Sandwich, Common Terns and the diminutive Damara Tern which breed in the nearby sand dunes.
The Karoo vegetation around Darlington Lake is home to many Karoo endemics such as Pririt Batis, Rufous-eared Warbler and Karoo Chat. The Darlington Dam hosts Goliath Herons, Lesser Flamingos, fresh-water terns and Greyheaded Gulls.

Elephant

Black Rhino with Calf

Buffalo

Kudu Bull

Hartebeest

Warthog

Addo Dungbeetle

Secretary Bird