Kruger National Park
Description:
Kruger National Park is the oldest and most famous reserve in South Africa, one of the largest national parks in the world.
Located in the northeastern part of South Africa, on the territory of the provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, Kruger Park covers almost nineteen thousand square kilometers and extends for 350 km from north to south and 60 km from east to west.
Kruger National Park, together with Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, one of the "Peace Parks" (Peace Park). This means that there are no protected borders between states on the territory of this park, nothing interferes with the free movement of animals.
The proposal to create a reserve, which would later become Kruger National Park, was submitted to the government of the Boer Republic of Transvaal in 1895. In 1898, a positive decision was made and the president of the Transvaal, Paul Kruger, whose name the park would later be named, announced the creation of a new reserve.
Initially, the park was created to control hunting and protect animals from extinction.
In 1926, the Sabie Game Reserve, the adjacent Shingwedzi Game Reserve and a number of farmlands were merged into Kruger National Park. The new park was opened to visitors in 1927.
About two thousand plant species grow on the territory of Kruger National Park. Here you can see about five hundred species of birds, over a hundred species of reptiles (including about three thousand crocodiles), but, of course, the most interesting "exhibits" in Kruger National Park are animals.
There are about one hundred and fifty species of mammals in Kruger National Park, more than any other African reserve. Of course, there are all the beasts of the "big five", which are considered the most dangerous species for a hunter - lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo and leopards.