Addo Elephant National Park, National park in Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Addo Elephant National Park is a large protected area in Eastern Cape that combines different landscape types into one reserve. Grasslands, dense thickets, and river valleys create distinct habitats across the terrain.
The reserve was established in 1931 to protect just eleven elephants facing extinction in the region. This rescue effort grew into a major park that now shelters more than 600 of these animals.
The name Addo comes from the Khoikhoi word for the acacia trees that grow in the area. Visitors can see the park's elephants at the floodlit waterhole in the main camp, where they gather after dark. The park's barrier fence, built from mineshaft lift cable and tramlines donated by the Port Elizabeth City Council and the City of Johannesburg, is still in use today.
The main entrance and two looped tourist roads are tarred, while the rest are gravel. An extra access road leaves the N2 near Colchester and joins the tourist roads in the southern block. The German foreign ministry advises against the R335 via Motherwell from Gqeberha; use the N2 through Colchester instead.
Addo is the only park where visitors can see Africa's "Big 7" — elephant, rhinoceros, lion, buffalo, leopard, whale and great white shark — in their natural habitat, since the marine reserve adds the two ocean species to the land-based Big Five.
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