The Addo Elephant National Park is a founding supporter of the SPAR Kirkwood Wildsfees.
It is the only national park in the world to conserve the “Big 7” – the Big 5 (lion, rhino, elephant, buffalo and leopard), as well as the southern right whale and great white shark off the Algoa Bay coast.
Prize disease-free buffalo and other premium-quality game from the park attract buyers from throughout the Southern African region to the annual game auction which forms part of the festival.
Now the third largest national park in South Africa, Addo Elephant National Park has expanded to conserve a wide range of biodiversity, landscapes, fauna and flora.
Stretching from the semi-arid Karoo area in the north around Darlington Dam, over the rugged Zuurberg Mountains, through the Sundays River Valley and south to the coast between Sundays River mouth and Bushman’s river mouth, Addo covers about 180 000 hectares (444 700 acres) and includes the Bird and St Croix Island groups.
The original elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only eleven elephants remained in the area.
Today this finely-tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 600 elephant, lion, buffalo, black rhino, spotted hyena, leopard, a variety of antelope and zebra species, as well as the unique Addo flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in the park.
Plans are currently afoot to include the proposed proclamation of a 120 000 ha (296 500 acre) Marine Protected Area which includes islands that are home to the world’s largest breeding populations of Cape gannets and second largest breeding population of African penguins.