Addo Elephant National Park is a diverse wildlife conservation park located near the city of Port Elizabeth and is one of 20 national parks in South Africa. It is currently the third largest national park in terms of size, after Kruger National Park and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
The park was originally established in 1931 as a result of the efforts of entomologist Sydney Skaife to create a sanctuary for the 11 remaining elephants in the area. Addo Elephant Park has now grown into a thriving park that is home to over 600 elephants and a large number of other mammals.
The original park was later expanded to include the Woody Cape Nature Reserve, which extends from the mouth of the Sundays River towards the Egyptian city of Alexandria, and a marine reserve that includes St. Croix Island and Bird Island – both known as habitats for ospreys and penguins.
These marine areas are part of the expansion plan of Addo Elephant Park from its original area of 1,640 km², later to 3,600 km².
This expansion not only makes the park a record holder for containing five of South Africa’s seven major vegetation regions (biomes), but also the only park in the world to simultaneously conserve Africa’s seven largest wildlife species (known as the Big 7). The seven largest wildlife species living in the wild in South Africa are the elephant, rhinoceros, lion, buffalo, leopard, whale and great white shark.
