National Park – Page 4 – See Animals Wild

List your wild place

Would you like to list your wildlife destination on this site?

Wildlife fascinates most people. From vast wildernesses set aside by governments to wildlife thatlives alongside humans, all can potentially benefit locals.

On this website, our aim is to allow people to benefit from wildlife around them. . Whether you live or work in one of the worlds great wildernesses or national parks, or you own wilderness (Sabi sands, one of the oldest private reserves borders the Kruger), or you simply still have wildlife living on your land (whatever the use) we want to help people find you, so that you can show them all the wonderful wildlife on your land, and financially benefit from their visit.

There are examples of each type of page to look at. Do look at the ecosystem you are located in/by is already listed as we can add further options, but will not list ecosystems more than once.

We follow a relatively simplistic booking process, where a form on the website will generate an email booking. We can also include a calendar showing your availability.

There is a link to a form for each category, as well as a further form at the bottom of the page for any questions. This form includes the ability to submit photos of your offering and the wildlife in your vicinity (both are of importance, unless your wildlife destination is already listed) . We work on a simple pricing structure, where we charge you 10% of the cost of any booking that you recieve through us. (opens in a new tab)

Do you run a lodge or campsite within a protected area?

As you can see we have listed a number of lodges in parts of Africa, but the aim of this site was to simplify wild travel and so we are keen to work with any lodge that would like to.

In order to list your property, we will need:

Pictures of your accommodation, with information on cost and amenities
Information on the wilderness that surrounds your property, whether it is information on a national park or reserve.
Information as to what wildlife can be seen in the area, with some good pictures.

Feel free to view our lodges and reserves currently public to see what your listing can look like. If you are particular about your branding look, we are happy to put up your listing as you would like. Fill in the form at the link below

Fill in the form in this link to list your wild place -campsite lodge or similar

Or perhaps you run a wildlife hide of some kind

For many people the only way they can have a chance of seeing many animals, particularly nocturnal ones, is by sitting in a hide. Many of my most memorable wildlife moments have been had sitting in a wildlife hide watching something unfold in front of me. This need not be on protected land, so long as the hide is not ever used for hunting.

In order to list your hide, we will need:

Pictures of your hide with information on cost and amenities.
Pictures of the view people will get from the hide
Pictures of some of the wildlife that has been photographed from the hide, as well as information on frequency and anything else of interest.

See our one example currently live

https://seeanimalswild.com/wildsweden-bear-hide/

Fill in the form you will find if you click on this text to list your hide (bear bird or some other hide -hunting hides not accepted)

Or perhaps you share your vicinity with wildlife

Whatever the reason that you own land, it will be part of a natural ecosystem and as such you are likely to have some animals that live on it with you. This can cause complications with many land uses such as farming, where predators may eat some of your livestock. Many people will happily pay to have a chance of seeing some of these animals that can be a complication, and by utilising these visits you can make some extra money to help offset any financial losses from predation or damage to property. This could range from South African farmers who share their land with cheetahs, to European farmers who might share their land with bears or wolves, or perhaps simply an active badgers sett in the UK. Alternatively, you could own a restaurant where bush babies could be seen in the evening. The possibilities are endless.

To be listed we will need:

Details and photos of the land and wildlife that is found on it. If people are finding you on this website, they are interested in wildlife, so this should be the primary selling point. (if your ecosystem has already been added, this section can be skipped (while telling us which ecosystem it falls in)
What services you offer: are you just a guide or can you offer a place to stay as well, and where you are
Accommodation (camping or hut etc). This is particularly important if the wildlife is nocturnal or is based in a particularly remote area
A game drive to see the wildlife at a set time (or perhaps information about where to drive). Alternatively, if the wildlife you see is often in the same place (bushbaby or similar) perhaps people can sit comfortably while they watch. Many restaurants and bars have wildlife around them, we are eager to help people interested in wildlife to find you. However, it could just be a comfortable place to watch (or park a car). This could be anything from interesting birds, lizards to animals that are more exciting like leopards or bears or wolves.
Any other information that you would like to pass on
Information on pricing

Fill in the form in this link if you see a lot of wildlife on your land and would like to be able to invite other people to see it

Finally, we are keen to support wildlife guides, boat trips and wildlife drives.

Even in some of the wildest places on earth, it is very easy to spend weeks there and see none of the local animals.

A wildlife guide can make a big difference. Be it a trip on a boat to sea the marine life, or a car journey into a reserve nearby.

I am aware though, how often, it is hard to connect with local guides when you are visiting an area. We have visited wildernesses on several occasions and failed to find a guide to help us see what we are looking for.

As such I am keen to list local guides, and the ability to book.

To be listed, I will need:

Some information about the wildlife you often see when you take people out, preferably with some pictures (and where)
What services you offer (are you just a guide or can you offer a place to stay as well)
Any other information that you would like to pass on
Pricing

Fill in the form in this link if you are a wildlife guide and would like to list your services on our website, or you run trips to see marine wildlife, or in reserves around your home.

if you have a question or do not believe that your wildlife encounter falls in one of these categories please fill in the form below (we aim to be a place where the whole of the wildlife tourism industry (bar any form of hunting) if we do not serve your field let us know, we can either create a new section or instead fit it into another area.

Have a look at the listings we currently have to get an idea of what your listing will look like, and what we need.

December 12, 2019May 14, 2020

Nairobi National Park: a wilderness refuge that borders a capital City, what could go wrong?

Nairobi National Park is world-renowned as it is a wildlife Park that is right on the edge of a capital city (4 miles from the city centre). It is Kenya’s first National Park formed in 1946, it is not a large Park covering only around 45 square miles, so it forms part of migrating roots so what time to the year has large populations. Is particularly known for it rhino population, and while it is not a big 5 preserved as there are no elephants it does have cheetah which is rare for reserve so small.

However the issue with having a wild area this close to the city centre is that on occasion the Lions leave the park. When this happened and they come into contact with local residents it is often that the result is sad. A resident living near the park was unfortunately killed by a lion that left. The park is surrounded by an electric fence but this is not not always working and fences the really able to keep in large mammals permanently.

The Lion has killed around 30 dogs and other livestock in the area, and has clearly lost its fear of humans. If it is not possible to move this lion to reserve where it will not come into Direct contact with humans then this lion must be put down- a lion with no fear of humans sees us only as a source of food and will not stop coming back.

I have talked in the past about lion management and the ability to make man eating highly unlikely, all usual methods will fail though with a reserve like this. Reserves like this are important, but we need to find ways for locals to live alongside them safely.

July 4, 2019May 14, 2020

Angola has committed 60 million dollars to the clearance of landmines within their national parks

During Angola’s long-running Civil War, many parts of the country had minefields put in place. One of these is an area that is going to be a part of the massive Kaza ( Kalahari Zambezi) Transfrontier Park. For Angola to be able to benefit from this massive reserve it needs to be safe for tourists to visit, and this requires the removal of landmines. Unfortunately over the last 10 years international financial support for this important work has declined by 80%, which makes the target is finishing the work by 2025 and extremely optimistic idea.

February 10, 2018December 3, 2023

Transfrontier parks – allowing wildlife to exist closer to how it did before humans arrived

In Africa it is becoming increasingly common for national parks to be declared on both sides of a border. This allows the protected area to be vastly larger than either country could succeed in, on its own. This is important because many of the mammals that live in Africa need a lot of space and live at low densities. Without transfrontier parks it would be too expensive to protect a large enough area to support populations of animals such as wild dog and cheetah. In an ideal world this is a relatively simple solution, however as with everything it isn’t often that simple. With war and famine and other problems the animals could suddenly become less secure in one country than another. Continue reading “Transfrontier parks – allowing wildlife to exist closer to how it did before humans arrived”

January 6, 2018December 3, 2023

Review of Kruger National Park

Size [usr 4.5]
Facilities [usr 5]
Range of animals [usr 5]
Road quality [usr 4.5]
Wildness [usr 3.5]

Kruger is one of the few national parks in the world that is large enough to have a sizeable population for some of its rarer animals. It is also part of the Limpopo transfrontier park which includes the Limpopo park in Mozambique, Gonarezhou National Park, Manjinhi pan Sanctuary and Malipati Safari area in Zimbabwe as well as the area between Kruger and Gonarezhou, and the Sengwe communal land in Zimbabwe and Makuleke region in South Africa. The area of this whole piece park is 35000 square km. There are plans to increase this in size to close to 100,000 square km. About 18,000 square km (half) of this is the Kruger National Park.

The Kruger Park on its own is the equivalent of an area roughly the size of Wales. It has 138 different species of mammal roaming free. This includes 6 species of Cat, 3 of Dog (two of these are jackels) and many species of Antelope.

The Cat species include Lions (about 1500), Leopard (about 2000), Cheetah (200), Caracal, African wild cat, and Serval. Lions are easily found and generally do not fear cars, we saw lions at some point on most days we spent within the park. Leopards are far more secretive and we had been in the area for almost 3 months before we saw our first one. That is not to say that they are always this hard to see but often keep themselves hidden. There is a section of the river which claims to have the worlds highest density of leopards in the world.

Cheetah are very hard to find in the park because as there is much vegetation you can not spot them from a distance like in the Serengeti. Because there are very few of them sightings are a rare treat, though because they hunt mostly by sight, they are most active in the day, and often hunt during the hottest part of the day when the lions and leopards are resting. When we had our sighting of cheetah within Kruger, they were clearly looking for food and were standing on a small mound on the side of the road. We followed them as they slowly went off after prey in the distance, but quickly lost them.

The last major predator is the African wild dog. African wild dog are highly successful pack animals. No African mammal is successful more often when hunting. However unfortunately this means that they are highly mobile and while we narrowly missed them on many occasions, we never got lucky with these fascinating animals. The Kruger has a relatively stable population of 350 animals, however they are very susceptible to illnesses, and due to the shape of Kruger, there is always the risk of rabies or canine distemper being spread through the population from strays living around the park. In 1992, the wild dog population of the Serengeti disappeared in one year. Because that park is connected to others wild dog are slowly returning. There are proactive projects trying to improve the health of dogs around remaining national parks containing wild dog, in the hope of saving this fascinating mammal.

It has both white rhino and black rhino populations, though the black rhino population remains low. Rhino have been targeted in the last decade. It is believed that by grinding down rhino horn and drinking it many illnesses can be cured. While this is rubbish demand meant that rhino horn was for a time more valuable than an equivalent weight in Gold. More absurd is the fact that White Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same substance that make up our fingernails (and you will get the same medicinal remedy by grinding up your fingernails and drinking them). At one point the poaching was running at one thousand animals a year, though thankfully this number has reduced. Black Rhino also once existed within the area in great numbers but were eradicated. They were reintroduced and there is a population of around 400-600, that has grown from a founder popuation of 90 between the 1970 and 1990s. Black rhino being browsers rather than the grazing white rhino (misnamed, White was a mistranslation of the Africaans name Weit meaning wide) and as such their droppings are easily differentiated. We encountered black rhino droppings a few times so knew that there was at least one animal in the area we spent much of our time, but they are very shy spending much of their time deep in cover so not seen very often.

When the park was enclosed it was worked out that the carrying capacity of the park was 7000 elephants. Currently the number exceeds 16000 which is roughly twice the calculated carrying capacity of the reserve. Up until 1990 regular culls kept the elephant population limited, but since then the size has doubled. However this is a rather difficult problem to work out as the elephants are not living in the same way that they would have lived hundreds of years ago. Elephants are very destructive, regularly pushing down trees and generally changing the area as they see fit; at a certain point in the elephants would have migrated out of the area for some time allowing the land to recover. Once the elephants were fenced in this was not possible. The hope is that this migrating behaviour can be restarted within transfrontier parks like the Kruger, though this behaviour might take many years to start.

On a smaller scale, due to the fact that large parts of the reserve have never been anything other than wild, this means that the ecosystem functions well in the natural way that it did for millenia before humans appeared. As such apart from all the big animals to be looking for, there are also dozens of smaller animals to be looking out for, animals such as Servals, Caracals, Civit cats, Genets, African wild cats, Pangolins, Aardvarks and many many more. This makes the reserve an exciting place to drive through; you never know what animal might walk out into the road (or be spotted in the nearby bushes).

Practical review

The Kruger is possibly the easiest large nature reserve in Africa to visit. This is because the majority of the roads are tarmacked and most of the rest are dust paths that are still easy to drive. Almost all the roads you are allowed to drive are easily driveable in a 2 wheel drive, therefore there is no need within the Kruger for 4 wheel drive, though the extra height of the vehicle comes in useful because it makes it easier to see over bushes and other cars.

The campsites have electric fences around them so there is no need to hire guards to look after yourself, this also makes Kruger probably the most child friendly large reserve as within the safety of the camp, children can play close by without needing to look out for animals all the time. There are about 12 main campsites but many of these have satellites camps that allow for a more wild feel (less easily child friendly).

For those looking for a wilder feel, some of the camps have satellite camps that are far smaller with fewer resources, but this means that often the animals come closer.

Each campsite has a sightings board, which contains a map of the park and pins of different colours to allow you to say where you saw different animals. This means that with some planning each morning you can make sure you look through parts of the park where sightings are most likely. This means that even if it is your first visit you can often have sightings just like a seasoned wildlife guide.