Tembe Elephant Park is a 30 012 ha

game reserve A game reserve (also known as a wildlife preserve or a game park) is a large area of land where wild animals live safely or are hunted in a controlled way for sport. If hunting is prohibited, a game reserve may be considered a nature reserve; ...

Maputaland Maputaland is a natural region of Southern Africa. It is located in the northern part of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa between Eswatini and the coast. In a wider sense it may also include the southernmost region of Mozambique. The bi ...

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is loca ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. It is adjacent to

Ndumo Game Reserve Ndumo Game Reserve is a small () South African game reserve located in the far northeast district of KwaZulu-Natal known as Maputaland. It is situated on the border with Mozambique where the Pongola River joins the Great Usutu River. It is adjacen ...

. The park was developed by Tembe Tribal Authority and

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is a governmental organisation responsible for maintaining wildlife conservation areas and biodiversity in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Their headquarters is in Queen Elizabeth Park situated on the northern slopes o ...

. It was established in 1983 to protect

elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

which used to migrate between Maputaland and southern

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...

. These elephants were traumatised by

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set ag ...

during the civil war in Mozambique so the park was only opened to the public in 1991. The park is now home to 250 elephants which are the largest in the world.

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, the largest living tusker in the southern hemisphere, died in 2014. 200 more elephants which used to be part of the same group live in the Maputo Elephant Reserve in Mozambique. The

Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area The Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area was born out of the Peace Park Foundation’s vision to establish a network of transfrontier conservation areas in southern Africa. It straddles the border between South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal provin ...

is planned to link the two reserves and the Lubombo Conservancy in

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its ...

in a single transfrontier reserve. More than 340 bird species have been recorded in Tembe, including the rare Rudd's apalis, the

rufous-bellied heron The rufous-bellied heron (''Ardeola rufiventris'') is a species of heron in the genus ''Ardeola'', the pond herons, of the family Ardeidae. Identification This is a small dark species of heron with a dark grey head, back and breast contrasting ...

, the Natal nightjar and the Woodwards's batis. This park is to be included into the Usuthu-Tembe-Futi Transfrontier Conservation Area.

References

External links

Tembe Elephant Park

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife

Tembe Wilderness Trust

Tembe Live WebCam
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Parks {{KwaZuluNatal-geo-stub