Kruger National Park
Kruger National Park (Afrikaans: [ˈkry.(j)ər]) is a national park in South Africa covering an area of 19,623 km2 (7,576 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in the country’s northeast. It extends 360 km (220 mi) from north to south and 65 km (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa’s first national park in 1926. It is part of Kruger to Canyons Biosphere, an area designated as a biosphere reserve.[6] It is within the South Africa Standard Time Zone (GMT+2).[7]
The founder of Kruger National Park is considered to be President Paul Kruger. It is a major tourist attraction which in 2024 drew close to 2 million visitors.[8]
History
Conservation Pre-Game Reserve (1867–1898)
A Game Commission was established in 1891 with J.M. Malan of Rustenburg as chairman,[9] which resulted in the establishment of the game law of 1891.[10] As early as 1867 individual farmers in the South African Republic started publishing notices in the Staatscourant which prohibited hunting as a measure to preserve game on their private land. In this manner a total 200 owners protected game on some 300 farms between 1867 and 1881.[11][12]
One of these farmers was pioneer Alexander Marsh Robertson[13] who owned two adjacent farms, Rolfontein and Elandsberg, extending over 7600 morgen (6510.92 hectares) in the Wakkerstroom district. Robertson was the first farmer to fence part of his property to create a game camp in the eastern Transvaal, some 500 morgen (428.35 hectares) using leadwood and barbed wire. The creation of the game camp however was serendipity. Robertson initially erected the fence to restrain his horses, but the fence also provided the added benefit of protecting the ground game. Game in this camp increased significantly due to the protection offered by the fence.[14]
President Paul Kruger regularly toured the rural areas to visit his people. He heard about the success of Robertson’s “game camp” and wrote to Albertus Stoop, his son Tjaart’s future father-in-law, himself a keen conservationist and neighbour of Robertson, to arrange a visit to Rolfontein so that he could see the experiment first hand and stay the night.[15] Kruger was very impressed with Robertson’s unexpected success and continued to show great interest in the Wakkerstroom farmer’s efforts to preserve game over the next few years. He visited Rolfontein again in 1892, and it was at this visit, at a great braai held in his honour that he spoke to the importance of Rolfontein in protecting smaller game and proceeded to lay out, for the first time in a public forum, his plan to establish the first Game Reserve in Africa along the Sabi River to preserve the big game that needed a much larger protected habitat to thrive.[15]
Kruger National Park – Wikipedia
