Animals Found Inside Kruger Park Camps

Sometimes you don’t have to drive anywhere to see wildlife in the Kruger Park. These are some of the wild animals found inside some of the Kruger National park camps.

Tamboti

This camp is known as the camp with the most wildlife animals inside the camp, it does have resident honey badgers which arrive during the night to go through your rubbish bin. Baboons can also be found here, and it is recommended you do not leave any food laying out when you leave the camp, as they will take it, the fridge at the camp is inside a cage to prevent them from opening the fridge and stealing your groceries.

Our favorite animal you find at Tamboti is the resident small spotted genet which arrives while you are eating and we see it so often that we named it ‘Gerry the Genet’. It is so used to seeing people that it comes quite close to you. We have also seen a leopard right by the fence of the camp.

Both Leopard and Cheetah have also once been spotted inside the camp

Visitors have also been woken up to a brawl between lions which occurred in the riverbed in front of one of the safari tents

Satara

Satara has a resident African wildcat which resides in the camp as well as a honey badger. An African wildcat is nocturnal, so you will most likely see it in the early morning and at night while you are most likely braaing. The African wildcat is frequently seen so look out for it the next time you stay at Satara. When we stayed there we saw it while making coffee for our early morning drive, it actually gave us such a fright because we saw it by the sliding door before it ran off.

Hyenas are often seen patrolling the fences around the camp and last year visitors were lucky enough to see a lion kill from their bungalow, the kill happened right next to fence.

Crocodile Bridge

Warthog families are found near the entrance of the camp or running around inside the camp, a bushbuck can also be found at Crocodile Bridge. These animals seek refuge inside the camp to get away from any predators.

A hyena got into the camp in 2016 injuring a boy who was sleeping in his tent at one of the campsites. It was suspected that the hyena gained access into the camp through one of the holes that the warthogs dug by the fence.

Lower Sabie

We personally haven’t seen any animals inside Lower Sabie, but a few months ago a Hyena was seen running around the camp, and SANparks had also put up a warning for a leopard which was seen by the swimming pool.

In 2013 a female leopard was seen inside the camp by the restaurant area, rangers set up a trap for the leopard so they could catch her and relocate her, but they were pleasantly y surprised when the female leopard escaped the camp on her own, but a male leopard was found in the same cage. The rangers removed him safely.

Afsaal  & Thsokwane

Afsaal is a picnic site which situated along the H3, and Tshokwane is situated along the H1-3, many people stop at either of these picnic sites because it offers toilet facilities, a shop, and a restaurant. Both picnic sites are unfenced and you do sometimes see a hyena wonder around the area, hoping to scavenge some food. Vervet monkeys are a common sighting in this area.

We have seen leopard paw prints at Tshokwane, and people have seen leopards at Afsaal.

Read our post of the leopard that was relocated from the Masorini Picnic site here.

Letaba

Letaba has resident bushbucks, the bucks are tame and are used to people feeding them so they do come close without running away. Despite SANparks warning people to not feed the animals. In 2011, an 8 year old child was hurt by a bushbuck, according to reports the child was feeding the bushbuck biscuits, when she extended her hand to feed the buck more biscuits, the buck attacked her and cut her jaw open.