The Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa, spanning across two million hectares of untouched wilderness and split into three distinctive regions - Central Kruger, Southern Kruger and Northern Kruger. Each region of the Kruger has a different geology but home to a healthy animal population. With wildlife moving freely between the regions, we take a look at the wildlife differences between the northern and southern regions. This will help you determine where and when to go to the Kruger.

Southern Kruger  

The southern region of the Kruger has a lush vegetation and more than 80% of the landscape is lined with granite, forming rounded koppies. There is also a collection of trees that are rarely found elsewhere in the Kruger, including the Cape chestnut, white pear, coral tree, lavender fever-berry and mountain seringa.

The area surrounding Satara Camp attracts plenty of wildlife as the soil contains 10 times more calcium than the granite soils.

There are a total of four rivers that provide a source of water to the wildlife of this region - Sabie River, Olifants River, Letaba River and Levuba River. With the presence of water, animals are sure to be present, especially during the drier winter months.

The private reserves within the southern parts of the Kruger offer incredible off-road game drives which are a great advantage when searching for the more elusive wildlife.

Wildlife: With a lush environment, the south attracts a good number of grazers and most of the Kruger's White Rhino are found here. The best sightings are had around Pretoriuskop, Mbyamiti River, and south of Lower Sabie. The granite outcrops offer the perfect residence for leopard and Klipspringers. All the big cats are found in the Kruger but lion are frequently seen in the south of the park. The Sabi Sands Game Reserve is a particularly good place to see all of the big cats and is home to about 300 of the 517 bird species found in the Kruger.

Northern Kruger 

The Northern Kruger region has a semi-arid landscape that comprise mainly of shrub mopane vegetation. This region doesn’t receive a lot of rainfall, even though it is relatively close to the warm Indian Ocean and should have more moisture in the air.

Mopane thrive under the hot & humid conditions of this region and play an important role in an elephant’s diet, along with mopane worms that feed off the leaves.

The Olifants, Letaba, Shingwedzi, Tsendze and Mphongolo rivers run through the northern region of the Kruger and attract a diverse collection of wildlife.

Wildlife: The river corridors attract a number of mammals and birds, particularly herds of elephants, lions, leopards, hyenas, and antelope such as waterbuck, bushbuck, impala and kudu. The Northern Region is home to half of Kruger's Elephants. Many unusual birds can be found in the Northern Region, particularly mourning which love the area around the Letaba and Shingwedzi rest camps. The grey rumped swallow and brown throated martin are usually found along the Olifants and Letaba rivers. The private Timbavati Game Reserve which forms part of the Greater Kruger Park is where one can catch a glimpse of the remaining white lions and spot as many as 360 species of birds.