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Tembe Elephant Reserve 

Tembe Elephant Reserve is a conservation area where only a few privileged tourists are allowed daily, to enter this remote park. It is accessible only to guests with 4X4 vehicles or on a guided game drive with Tour operators in the region.

Within the unique sand forest and grassland ecosystem of the Tembe National Elephant Park roam over 220 of the largest elephant in the world, the last remaining indigenous herd in KwaZulu-Natal.

This 300km pristine wilderness, a proclaimed reserve on the old Ivory Route between Mozambique and the Zulu territory, also boasts the other members of the Big Five – lion, leopard, black and white rhino and buffalo – as well as over 340 bird species and abundant other mammal species right down to the tiny Suni, one of the smallest antelope in the world.

Tembe Elephant Park was established in 1983 to protect the last remaining herds of free-ranging elephants in South Africa, known as the Great Tuskers. These elephants migrated seasonally between Mozambique and Maputaland (the extreme north of KwaZulu-Natal), however they faced constant harassment over the border, and preferred to stay in the dense sand forests of Tembe Elephant Park. Many of the elephants still bear scars of poaching attempts.

Tembe Elephant Park was only opened to the public in 1991, which gave the animals time to settle in to their protected home. Although Tembe Elephant Park falls within a malaria risk zone, malaria is not an issue as there has been a successful spraying operation over a number of years.


Reuniting the Tembe elephants - Usuthu-Tembe-Futi Transfrontier Conservation Area

The Tembe Elephants who were fenced in for their own protection might soon be able to roam, in relative safety, a vast and sparsely populated area. The same area which they walked in before they were fenced.

The proposed transfrontier arrangement, which the countries hope to complete within three years, involves five separate conservation areas spanning their respective borders. But the one aimed at improving the lot of the Tembe elephant is by far the biggest and most ambitious.

It will see the creation of a fenced-off corridor, the Usuthu-Tembe-Futi Transfrontier Conservation Area, of about 50km long and 20km wide to link the 78 000 ha Maputo Park with the 30 000 ha Tembe Park.

This should allow safe passage to the approximately 250 elephants of Maputo and the 200 or so of Tembe to resume old acquaintances.

Navigate the top portal site to find information on Kosi Bay, also known as Maputaland, northern Elephant Coast, Isimangaliso Wetland Park, Manguzi, Kwangwanase, Thongaland, Tembeland, including such fabulous sites such as Kosi Lakes, Kosi Mouth, Bhanga Nek, Rocktail Bay, Black Rock, Lake Sibaya, Mabibi, in fact anything north of Sodwana and south of Ponta de Ouro, Ponta Malongane andf Ponta Mamoli in Mozambique.




 IMVUBU INFO LAPHA - Maputaland Tourism Information | +27 35 5929925 | +27 727273079 | mail@maputaland.net 

Copyright© W. Labuschagne 2008