Mountain Zebra National Park
Expert Reviews (9)
South Africa Parks
James is a travel writer and author of many Lonely Planet guides, including senior author of the guide to South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Zebras and Cheetahs in the Karoo
This park in the deep Karoo, near the historic town of Cradock, is dedicated to conserving one of the world’s rarest mammals: the Cape mountain zebra. The 280 sq km park has over 1,000 of the diminutive, dark-striped zebras, having begun with a founder herd of just six. Other animals to look out for include buffalo, several antelope species, aardwolf, bat-eared foxes, caracals and, since a trio was introduced in 2013, lions. I spent a few hours driving the good-quality roads, looping across the rolling plains beneath the craggy Bankberg range, and enjoyed plentiful antelope sightings including frolicking springboks. For a thrilling wildlife experience, join a guide to track the park’s elusive cheetahs and get as close as 15m from these big cats.
Harriet is a zoologist with more than 20 years’ experience. She has the privilege of working with the world’s top wildlife photographers and photo-guides.
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Rolling grasslands and the elusive aardwolf.
This little visited South African national park, located in the Eastern Cape, has stunning scenery with mountain slopes and rolling, golden grasslands. It was established to save the Mountain Zebra. With its dewlap and “gridiron” patterned rump, this mountain specialist looks very different to the plains zebra. One of the unique experiences of this park is the opportunity to track collared cheetah on foot, with the park ranger. I found it a thrilling experience to get so close to wild cheetah. Although lion have recently been reintroduced, this is not a Big 5 destination. However, you do stand a chance of seeing some more unusual species. This is the only place in Africa I have ever seen aardwolf, both times I visited, but the aardvark still eludes me here. The best time of year to stand a chance of seeing these rare creatures is winter, however bring warm clothes as the temperatures drop below freezing.
Dale is a multi-award-winning writer and photographer with more than 500 published magazine articles featured in magazines such as National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa, and CNN Travel.
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When the Karoo was wild
The Mountain Zebra National Park was established back in 1937 with the sole purpose of saving its namesake from extinction; a job it did very well, seeing as there were only a handful of them left. Once, this handsome equine was as rare as honest politicians, but thanks to parks like ‘Mountain Zebra’, these creatures are once again free to roam in herds across the rolling Karoo landscape. Today, there are more than a thousand living in the park.
A visit to this charming little reserve is a bit like stepping back in time. I can imagine how wild and untamed the whole of the Karoo used to be before the Colonials settled here in the 1700s and turned much of it into farmland. You can even find cave paintings left behind by the once-indigenous (but now extinct) bushmen tribes who once called this place their home.
You will find herds of springbok and eland, as well as buffalo, kudu, and the seldom-seen brown hyena, caracal, and bat-eared fox. But it’s the mountain zebras that are the stars of the show.
The landscape of the park is dominated by grassy plains and buckled karoo mountains. The accommodation is quite upmarket for a national park, and the hiking trails and game drive routes are certainly worth an investment of a day or two of your holiday.
One of the highlights for me was going on a guided cheetah hike, where I was led to a habituated family of these beautiful wild cats. They paid me no mind as I sat beneath the shade of an acacia tree and watched them at close quarters as they groomed, played, and purred.
Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.
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One of the last retreats for the endangered Mountain zebra
This small but scenic park, tucked away in a remote corner of the Karoo, is great to see some of South Africa’s endemics. Most notable is the Cape Mountain zebra, which was saved from extinction with the proclamation of Mountain Zebra National Park in 1937. Today more than a 1,000 zebras roam the grassy slopes of the park and sightings are pretty much guaranteed. I was also lucky to see two other endemics on my bucket list: blesbok and black wildebeest with its distinctive white tail. Other antelopes to look out for are red hartebeest, eland, springbok and greater kudu. There are lots of little creatures around as well. I spent an hour or so photographing a couple of ground squirrels grooming each other at their den and I had good sightings of yellow mongoose and meerkat. Lion were introduced in 2013. I know sightings are hit-and-miss, but I was lucky to see two males crossing the road in front of me as they were patrolling the area. If you haven’t seen cheetah up close, I’d recommend joining the guided cheetah tracking activity.
Kim is a travel writer who authored and updated over 15 guidebooks, including Lonely Planet's South Africa and Bradt's Tanzania guides.
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A mountain of zebras
With its characteristic “onion peel” sandstone mountains, rolling hills and deep valleys, the 28,000km2-plus Mountain Zebra National Park is a brilliant sanctuary for the Cape mountain zebra, notable for their reddish-orange noses, which, since the park’s proclamation in 1937, have been brought back from the brink of extinction. Beyond the namesake zebra, the park also boasts buffalo, black rhino, eland, kudu, black wildebeest and other species, as well as a rich variety of plants and birdlife. For me one of Mountain Zebra’s most fascinating attractions are the 300-year-old San cave paintings that depict faded figures, eland and other antelope and, perhaps most unusual of all considering the rarity in sightings, a cheetah. The park can be done in a day trip from Port Elizabeth or Cradock, but if you really want to get the most out of your visit I’d suggest you stay overnight in the accommodation provided in the park.
Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.
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Endemics hideaway
This medium-sized park near the small town of Cradock is notable for its striking landscapes of green rolling hills. It hosts a wide range of native South African wildlife that go some way to evoking the Karoo landscape as it must have been prior to the colonial era. The biggest draw is the eponymous Cape mountain zebra, which might well have gone extinct were it not for the creation of this dedicated national park in 1937. Today, roughly 1,000 mountain zebra roam the park’s hilly slopes, and several herds are likely to be seen on any given game drive, along with significant numbers of the black wildebeest, red hartebeest and blesbok. A highlight of our most recent visit was encountering a pair of handsome thick-maned male lions on the move. These impressive beasts were reintroduced in 2013 and the population now stands at around 20 individuals. We had less luck with buffalo, black rhino and cheetah, all of which have been reintroduced in recent years. However, we enjoyed a delightful sighting of ground squirrels foraging around their sandy burrows, and inquisitive meerkats poking their heads out from a roadside drainage ditch. Birding was surprisingly quiet, given that 277 bird species are listed for the park, but highlights included a good look at a pair of blue korhaans, a gorgeous near-threatened bustard endemic to South Africa. We also had good raptor viewing, including chanting goshawk and jackal buzzard. Wildlife is concentrated on the animal-viewing circuits north of the rest camp, but we enjoyed the more southerly Kranskop Loop for the vast montane scenery. Overall, this small park makes a worthwhile and interesting diversion if you are in the area, but few would go far out of their way to visit it.