South Africa encompasses one of the most diverse landscapes on the entire continent, with habitats ranging from verdant forests, to stony deserts and soaring mountains, to lush grasslands and classic African savannahs. It is home to penguins and flamingos, great white sharks and ponderous African elephants, and many more animals that will surprise and amaze visitors. There are over 700 publicly owned preserves (including 19 national parks) and about 200 private reserves, with Kruger National Park and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park being the largest.

Birds

South Africa hosts over 800 bird species, including the world’s largest bird (the ostrich), its heaviest flying bird (Kori bustard), and vividly coloured sunbirds and flamingos. Also here in abundance are weavers, who share their huge city-like nests with pygmy falcons, the world’s smallest raptors.

Bird-watching is good year-round, with spring (August to November) and summer the best.

Endangered species

The black rhino is the highest profile entry on South Africa’s threatened species list (good places to spot these include Mkhuze Game Reserve and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. The riverine rabbit is the country’s most endangered mammal (the only place in the world it is found is near rivers in the central Karoo). The wild dog (seen with luck in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park) is also endangered, as is the roan antelope. Endangered bird species include the graceful wattled crane and the blue swallow. The African penguin and the Cape vulture are considered threatened.

Animals

South Africa is home to an unparalleled diversity of wildlife. It boasts the world’s largest land mammal (the African elephant), as well as the second largest (white rhino) and the third largest (hippopotamus). It’s also home to the tallest (giraffe), the fastest (cheetah) and the smallest (pygmy shrew). You probably have a better chance of seeing the Big Five – the black rhino, Cape buffalo, elephant, leopard and lion – in South Africa than anywhere else. There’s also a lesser-known ‘Little Five’ – the rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, leopard tortoise and ant lion – if you’re looking for a challenge.

The best time for wildlife-watching is the cooler, dry winter (June to September) when foliage is less dense, and animals congregate at waterholes, making spotting easier. Summer (late November to March) is rainy and hot, with the animals more widely dispersed and often difficult to see. However, the landscape turns beautiful shades of green around this time and birdlife is abundant.

Plants

Over 20,000 plant species sprout from South Africa’s soil – an amazing 10% of the world’s total, although the country constitutes only 1% of the earth’s land surface.

Dozens of flowers that are domesticated elsewhere grow wild here, including gladiolus, proteas, birds of paradise and African lilies. South Africa is also the only country with one of the world’s six floral kingdoms within its borders.

In the drier northwest, there are succulents (dominated by euphorbias and aloes), and annuals, which flower brilliantly after the spring rains, and are one of Northern Cape’s major tourist attractions.

In contrast to this floral wealth, South Africa has few natural forests. They were never extensive, and today only remnants remain. Temperate forests occur on the southern coastal strip between George and Humansdorp, in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg and in Mpumalanga. Subtropical forests are found northeast of Port Elizabeth in the areas just inland from the Wild Coast, and in KwaZulu-Natal.

In the north are large areas of savanna, dotted with acacias and thorn trees.