Skukuza Restcamp - Wildlife & Vegetation
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Of the often-quested-for
Big Five,
Skukuza hosts an estimated 1,500 lion, 12,000 elephant, 2,500 buffalo, 1,000 leopards and 5,000 rhino (black and white). Other attractions include Wild dog, a warthog population, vervet monkey (from which visitors should be careful to protect their possessions). Night time visits are made by genet, thick-tailed bush baby and fruit bat, while the river front of the camp offers an opportunity to look for hippopotamus and buffalo.
Other animals to be found here include aardvark, Roan, Sable, Chacma baboon, aardwolf, lesser and thick tailed bushbaby, side striped and black backed jackal, Dwarf, Selous's and Meller's mongoose and the red and common duiker. Added to this are Angolan free tailed, Wahlberg's and Peter's epauletted bats, elephant, buffalo, caracal, cheetah, lion, and leopard, African wild cat and wild dog, hippopotamus, giraffe, Sharpe's Grysbok, Lichtenstein's Hartebeest, impala, klipspringer, kudu, common and mountain reedbuck, oribi, striped polecat, steenbok, warthog and numerous others.
The camp's plant life includes large sycamore fig trees, jackalberry and Natal mahogany, with a surrounding ecozone of thorn thicket, and prominent Knob thorn and sickle bush.
Birder's can encounter Finfoot and Half-collared Kingfisher, and, in the summer the area sees Lesser Masked and Village (Spotted-backed) Weavers, Green Pigeons, Red-faced Cisticola and Spectacled Weaver, Little Sparrowhawk, Collared Sunbird, Red-backed and Bronze Mannikin, Purple-crested Turaco (Lourie) and three bush shrikes (Orange-breasted, Grey-headed and Gorgeous). The elusive White-browed (Heuglin's) Robin-chat is another indienous species, as well as seven species of flycatcher( Paradise , Black, Dusky, Spotted, Grey Tit- (Fantailed), Ashy (Bluegrey) and Pale (Pallid)), Bat-hawk or Eurasian Hobby, and Woodland Kingfishers hunting in the glow cast on a local fig tree by the lights of the restaurant at night.
Most Recent Sightings - Baboon,
Buffalo,
Giraffe,
Elephant,
Hippopotamus,
Wildebeest,
Zebra