Addo National Elephant Park

#Addo National Elephant Park The Addo National Elephant Park is the third largest National Park in South Africa, second only to the Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. It is situated about an hour's drive from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. The original section of the park was founded in 1931 in order to save the few remaining elephants in this region. Formerly thousands of elephants roamed the area. Sadly their numbers dwindled to just a few, due to hunting for ivory.

Today, Addo is home to more than 550 elephants. The elephant families with their young remain the most important attraction. The Park is a 'big five' game reserve (lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino) it also offers a great variety of antelope species, jackals, warthog, tortoises and many more. The variety of vegetation relates to the incredible variety of animals.

Currently the park is being extended to form the greater Addo. A large section of marine reserve has already been added. Addo now claims to host the 'big seven', the 'big five' as well as southern right whales and great white sharks. The marine reserve includes St Croix and Bird islands. These islands are home to breeding colonies of Cape Gannet and the African Penguin.