“Big 5″ Animal Sightings Kruger National Park South Africa


The Kruger is split up into 22 sections and the “Big 5″ data below is the sum of all observations in all sections over a full year. Please read the important notes at the bottom of the tables.

Buffalo - Elephant - Leopard - Lion - White Rhino

Where to find animals in the Kruger Park?

The tables show …

* Numbers of lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and white rhino seen by the patrolling rangers over the full period on a month by month basis.
* The average number of animals seen per individual sighting (gives an idea of herd size)
* Number of sightings in each of the 22 Kruger Park sections

Kruger National Park Far More Than The Big Five BookThis Kruger National Park website was developed by my father, Tony Roocroft, to map all the roads in this wonderful wildlife heritage site. He completed the project and at the time of writing this is unfortunately not very well. His last wish was for all the information he gathered and put together over years of hard work was to be published... And this has become a reality, together with lots of help from Africa On Paper publishers the book is now available for sale, as you will see on the left. It is unlike any other Kruger National Park and shares everything you can imagine about the park... Please have a look at it, its great, just click the picture to learn more about the book.

As previously explained the Kruger National Park rangers patrol the length and breadth of the Game Reserve looking out for poachers, and doing all sorts of fieldwork geared to ensuring the KNP remains the wonderful unspoiled natural resource for all South Africans that it truly is.

The Big Five - Kruger ParkThe table is the sum of the recordings made by the rangers who carried GPS units on their patrols. The number do not represent at all the actual Kruger Park census type numbers … this information is covered elsewhere. The numbers in the table will give you an overall appreciation of the numbers of animals seen by well trained eyes of a relatively few people.

 

 

Big 5 … Monthly Sightings 2005 to 2006
Species African Buffalo African Elephant African leopard African Lion White Rhino
Mar 19,771 7,435 45 265 741
Apr 28,136 8,385 100 423 974
May 36,875 9,851 99 602 1,826
Jun 35,431 12,925 98 632 1,228
Jul 36,517 12,425 137 744 1,466
Aug 23,140 12,649 90 703 1,687
Sep 40,150 13,374 72 572 3,756
Oct 53,147 16,688 63 547 2,128
Nov 39,994 7,750 87 330 2,020
Dec 26,651 6,889 36 398 1,070
Jan 13,590 6,332 33 296 572
Feb 13,590 8,171 36 223 737
Total 370,019 123,254 896 5,735 18,205

 

 

 

Big 5 … Average Number Seen per Sighting 2005 to 2006
Species African Buffalo African Elephant African leopard African Lion White Rhino
Mar 62 12 1.3 3.2 2.9
Apr 75 10 1.3 3.5 3.3
May 92 11 1.1 4.2 4.3
Jun 85 12 1.2 3.6 2.6
Jul 76 10 1.2 3.5 2.5
Aug 60 14 1.2 4.2 2.9
Sep 86 13 1.1 3.9 6.1
Oct 103 13 1.2 4.1 3.4
Nov 64 8 1.9 3.4 3.8
Dec 62 9 1.0 5.0 2.8
Jan 43 9 1.2 4.0 2.1
Feb 42 10 1.1 4.0 3.0

 

 

Big 5 … Number of Sightings per Section 2005 to 2006
Species African Buffalo African Elephant African leopard African Lion White Rhino
Crocbridge 540 688 11 77 579
Houtboschrand 63 377 15 75 325
Kingfisherspruit 165 425 18 54 353
Letaba 84 623 8 6 7
Lower Sabie 152 285 13 46 328
Mahlangeni 574 540 183 207 161
Malelane 186 416 30 57 423
Mooiplaas 374 1,305 9 21 67
Nwanetsi 89 315 7 39 366
Olifants 110 314 4 18 24
Pafuri 180 140 43 37 29
Phalaborwa 103 480 21 26 33
Pretoriuskop 533 466 60 93 888
Punda 118 191 77 90 26
Satara 219 477 11 66 137
Shangoni 112 245 57 102 114
Shingwedzi
(less than full year)		 24 116 1 6 4
Skukuza 111 286 18 38 58
Stolsnek 138 215 11 15 333
Tshokwane 311 1,003 29 125 597
Vlakteplaas 757 1,945 82 209 427
Woodlands 162 112 29 79 11
Total 5,105 10,964 737 1,486 5,290