Kruger Magazine

“Drought is a painful experience for any wildlife enthusiast, and we are ecstatic about the exceptional summer rains in the Kruger.” Autumn is in the air and dam levels are rising. We have always been used to receiving very high rainfall during February in the Kruger Lowveld - but thisyear ‘high rainfall’ takes on another meaning. We have received more rain during the first half of February this year than the past three years combined! And although challenging during floods, we know that the Park will have enough water to last throughout the coming winter months - indeed a wonderful blessing. Drought is a painful experience for any wildlife enthusiast, and we are ecstatic about the exceptional summer rains in the Kruger. KRUGER MAGAZINE was honoured to receive another Kudu Award during…

We are in 2023, and the first issue of 2023 happens to be issue 23 of KRUGER MAGAZINE! When we published our first issue in September 2017, we never talked about our last issue - and we still don’t. There is still so much to explore - even our often-visited Kruger National Park surprises us every now and then. We spent a night at the secluded Shipandani Hide, and we fell in love with the Park all over again! Not to mention all the new lodges with new ideas, offering our visitors - local and international - the promise of such a unique safari experience that they will return, again and again. And this is what excites us about what we do. It enables us to share all things wild and wonderful with…

Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Eswatini and a fellow of the Mammal Research Institute in the Department of Zoology & Entomology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is co-author of Bats of Southern and Central Africa (2020). Mike Unwin is an award-winning writer of popular natural history books and a wildlife and travel journalist. He writes regularly for BBC Wildlife magazine and Travel Africa Magazine, among many others. Authors: Ara Monadjem with Mike Unwin Publisher: Wits University Press Language: English Extent: 336pp, softcover 109 Illustrations, colour Recommended price: R390.00 (South Africa) US$35.00 (International) Publishing date: Feb. 2023 Limited space does not allow me to do this wonderful book the justice it deserves. The authors celebrate Africa’s amazing biodiversity and focus on how this diversity interacts within African landscapes. The book…

South African National Parks (SANParks), with the support of TotalEnergies and First National Bank (FNB), recognised deserving conservationists at the annual Kudu Awards ceremony held at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on 24 November 2022. The awards were made possible thanks to forward-thinking and progressive partners who recognised internal and external stakeholders that have demonstrated exceptional commitment to sustainability, improving livelihoods, and achieving real change on the ground in our national parks. Watch this! Scan the QR code or visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHnGku1JaHQ to view video footage of the awards ceremony. The Kudu Awards and the Chief Executive Awards recognise SANParks employees as well as multiple stakeholders and disciplines that play a pivotal role in strengthening conservation in South Africa. “Awareness of conservation issues is of vital importance and if we want to better protect…

This short article is not about the few white lions of the Kruger National Park (KNP). Much is known about them and can be researched on the internet. This is merely about our joy in observing Casper and his pride for the first time, and the emotions my wife, Tina, and I experienced when we witnessed a kill by Casper and his pride 10m from our vehicle during a visit to the KNP in January 2023! One cannot talk about the white lion without having some basic background information: • The ‘white lion’ is neither a species, nor sub-species in their own right, but rather a genetic mutation. • Casper and his pride live around the Satara Camp in the Central Kruger National Park. • He is a part of a coalition of…

IN NO HURRY My very first visit to the Kruger came a week after I arrived in South Africa from Scotland in the early 1980s. I was a (very) novice soil surveyor at the then Department of Agriculture and my boss took myself and another recent arrival from Argentina on a reconnaissance tour of the old Transvaal to look at the landscapes and soils occurring there. As part of the tour, we had a couple of hours in the Kruger on a hot December afternoon, when, despite the heat, we saw four of the Big 5. There were one or two subsequent visits to the Kruger, including a couple of nights as part of our honeymoon, but the process of falling in love with Kruger started in the mid-eighties when my wife,…