Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park Lion Survey Underway: What visitors need to know

South African National Parks (SANParks) and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) are carrying out a new lion survey in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, with fieldwork continuing until October 2026.

If you are visiting the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the coming weeks, you may notice research vehicles operating in the park alongside the usual SANParks vehicles. The survey is aimed at building a better picture of the park's lion population — including how many lions there are, where they occur and how they move through the Kgalagadi landscape.

Tracking Kgalagadi's lions

The survey is being conducted by SANParks in partnership with the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and will cover different sections of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

Researchers are using vehicle-based surveys and camera traps to collect information. One particularly useful method involves photographing the whisker spot patterns of individual lions.

Every lion has a unique arrangement of whisker spots around its muzzle. By photographing and comparing these patterns, researchers can identify individual lions and gradually build a more accurate picture of the population.

The resulting data will help SANParks and its partners better understand the size, distribution and movements of lions in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

What does this mean for visitors?

For most visitors, the survey should have little impact on a Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park safari. You may, however, come across SANParks or EWT research vehicles displaying official branding, particularly when researchers are working near lions.

Researchers may occasionally stop close to lions to photograph their whisker patterns. If you encounter a research vehicle or a lion being studied, the same basic safari rules apply:

• Keep a respectful distance from lions and other wildlife.
• Do not crowd animals or research vehicles.
• Give researchers enough space to carry out their work.
• Follow instructions from SANParks staff and research teams.
• Never compromise the safety of yourself, other visitors, researchers or wildlife to get a better photograph.

For visitors, it is essentially another reminder that the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a working conservation area as well as a spectacular wildlife destination.

Why the survey matters

Reliable information about lion numbers and movements is important for the long-term management of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Lions are a key predator in the park's ecosystem, and understanding how the population changes over time helps conservation managers make better-informed decisions.

The current survey runs until October 2026, with the information collected contributing to the ongoing conservation and management of lions in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

For visitors, there is also a small bonus: if you come across one of the research teams, you may get to see some of the science behind the wildlife sightings that make a Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park trip so special.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park visitors should therefore give research teams and wildlife the space they need — and enjoy watching the researchers at work from a safe and respectful distance.

 

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South Africa: New lion research project launched in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park!

South African National Parks (SANParks), in collaboration with the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), has launched an exciting new lion research project in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, a premier wildlife destination spanning South Africa and Botswana. The initiative aims to gather essential scientific data on the park’s lion population—determining how many lions live here, where they roam, and how they navigate this vast arid landscape.

Lions are apex predators that play a critical role in maintaining a balanced and healthy ecosystem. To manage and conserve them effectively, SANParks needs accurate, up-to-date information on their numbers, movement patterns, and territories. Over the coming months, field teams will use safe, non-invasive research methods - such as remote cameras, track identification, visitor sightings, and detailed photographic records - to build a comprehensive understanding of the park’s lion dynamics.

Visitors to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park may notice clearly marked SANParks or EWT research vehicles. Researchers may occasionally approach lions briefly to capture identification photographs, focusing on distinctive features such as whisker spot patterns, scars, and other unique markings.

SANParks kindly requests all guests to give research teams plenty of space and to drive respectfully without crowding lions. By doing so, visitors actively contribute to the success of this conservation effort.

Guests with questions about the project are encouraged to speak to SANParks staff at reception. Researchers may also be available for informal, safe conversations in designated public areas, offering visitors a unique opportunity to learn more about lion conservation firsthand.

This collaboration between SANParks and the EWT marks a significant step forward in protecting one of Africa’s most iconic and endangered predators- and offers every park visitor the chance to be part of that story.

 

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Two male lions relocated to Addo Elephant National Park to strengthen genetic diversity!

South African National Parks (SANParks) has successfully introduced two male lions into Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa's Eastern Cape. The pair, estimated to be around seven years old, were relocated from the Twee Rivieren section of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and released into their new environment on 10 July 2025, following a period of acclimatisation in a holding boma.
This relocation forms part of SANParks' ongoing efforts to enhance the genetic diversity of lions in Addo Elephant National Park. The two males join two lionesses that were translocated to the park in March 2025 from the !Khamab Kalahari Reserve, situated on the southeastern edge of the Kalahari. The introduction of these lions brings strong new bloodlines to the population, contributing to the long-term sustainability of the species within the park.
With these additions, Addo Elephant National Park now hosts a total of nine lions in its main game viewing area, and an additional three lions in the Nyathi section of the national park.
To assist in monitoring, both new male lions have been fitted with GPS collars. These devices allow rangers and researchers to closely observe their movements, preferred habitats, interactions with other lions and predators, as well as prey selection. The data gathered will support SANParks in managing lion numbers relative to the Addo Elephant National Park's carrying capacity and prey availability.

This translocation is part of a broader conservation strategy to mimic natural ecological processes, including the rotation of individual lions between national parks to promote healthy population dynamics and social structures.

In parallel, two older male lions, Niklaas and Witwarm, were relocated from Addo Elephant National Park to Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock. The two are currently being held in a boma as they adapt to their new surroundings before release.

Travel alert: Pide of lions in Kruger National Park shows abnormal behaviour around vehicles!

South African National Parks (SANParks) has issued a travel alert for Kruger National Park. The management of South Africa's most popular National Park has received reports of a pride of lions north of Satara Rest Camp which is showing abnormal behaviour around vehicles such as the biting of tyres. Visitors who come across lions displaying such behaviour should ensure that their windows remain closed and those on open safari vehicles should ensure that they remain silent and keep all arms, heads etc. within the structure of the vehicle. SANParks requests visitors not to get too close to any animals for footage at a sighting, or refrain from placing any items on the vehicle exterior or tyres which might attract and encourage animals to approach the vehicle

SANParks encourages visitors to Kruger National Park, who might have taken photos/video or have feedback on the pride, to share or post these on SANPArks social media platforms. This allows Kruger National Park's management to try to identify whether it is only a specific member of the pride or whether the entire pride has developed this behaviour. The National Park's Veterinary Wildlife Services will be collaring a member of this pride to monitor movements and will also mark all members of the pride to allow for identification.

Mozambique: 24 lions to be released in Zambezi Delta!

update (10 September 2018): One of the lions has been killed by poachers. Click here for more information.

The largest conservation transplant of lions across international borders in history is currently taking place in  South Africa and Mozambique. The transfer of 24 lions from the Tembe Elephant Park and the Makalili Game Reserve in  South Africa to a 2.5-million-acre habitat ("Coutada 11") in the Zambezi Delta in central Mozambique commenced on 05 August 2018. Since their arrival in Mozambique, the lions are under quarantine in special bomas where they will form social groups ("prides") to increase their chances of succesfully reintegrating into their new environment.



The transfer of the 24 lions from  South Africa to Mozambique, which has the the full support of Mozambique's National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), is undertaken by the Cabela Family Foundation ("Twenty Four Lions"), in partnership with Ivan Carter Wildlife Conservation Alliance, Marromeu Safaris and Zambeze Delta Safaris.

Brandberg Heritage Site (Namibia): No tours due to reported cases of lions in the area!

update (02 August 2018): Tours at the Brandberg National Heritage Site are open again from 03 August 2018

The National Heritage Council of Namibia just informed the public that it is currently not conducting any tours at the Brandberg Heritage Site ("White Lady Hike") until further notice due to reported cases of lions in the area. The service at the site is therefore put on hold until the Hertiage Council finds a win-win solution to the above mentioned problem. We'll keep you posted!



The Brandberg Heritage site is situated about 30km north west of the small town of Uis, close to the road from Khorixas to Hentie's Bay.

Brandberg Heritage Site (Namibia) to reopen for tours and hiking!

The National Heritage Council of Namibia (NHC) just informed the public that the Brandberg National Heritage Site ("White Lady Hike")  is open once again for business as usual as from 26 January 2018 for tours and hiking. The Heritage Site was closed since earlier in January due to reported cases of lions in the area. Please note that leisure permits should be obtained for hiking. Please contact the NHC for more information on the application procedure and fees.



The Brandberg Heritage site is situated about 30km north west of the small town of Uis, close to the road from Khorixas to Hentie's Bay.

Brandberg Heritage Site (Namibia): No tours due to reported cases of lions in the area!

The National Heritage Council of Namibia just informed the public that it is currently not conducting any tours at the Brandberg Heritage Site ("White Lady Hike") until further notice due to reported cases of lions in the area. The service at the site is therefore put on hold until the institution finds a solution to the above mentioned problem. We'll keep you posted!



The Brandberg Heritage site is situated about 30km north west of the small town of Uis, close to the road from Khorixas to Hentie's Bay.

Mountain Zebra National Park welcomes two new lionesses!

Two lionesses have been introduced to South Africa's Mountain Zebra National Park. The two sisters were brought into the National Park, which is situated just outside Cradock in the Eastern Cape, from the Kwandwe Private Game Reserve near Grahamstown. One of the lionesses is fitted with a satellite tracking collar, as they will most likely move together while exploring the Mountain Zebra National Park. The collar will allow park management to monitor them so that rangers and researchers can observe what habitats they use, their proximity to the males and other predators and which species they prey on. The two lionesses are about two years old and are now sharing Mountain Zebra's 28 000 hectares with the two five-year-old male lions. The males were introduced into the National Park in April 2013 – becoming the first free-roaming lions in the area after an absence of over 130 years.

South Africa: Two lions translocated from Marakele National Park to Karoo National Park

South African National Parks (SANParks) has translocated two lions from Marakele National Park in Limpopo to Karoo National Park in the Western Cape as part of its approach to managing lions in small parks. The two lions, a male and a female, are both four years old. They will join "Slyvester" (three years old), the lion who escaped from the Karoo National Park for 24 days in June 2015, in the holding boma he's been kept in since his recapture. SANParks hopes that while the three lions are in the boma, they'll bond and form their own pride before their release into the Park. The lion population of the Karoo National Park currently stands at 11 lions, while Marakele National Park currently has 24 resident lions including cubs.

Rwanda: First lions to return to Akagera National Park!

update (28 July 2015): The seven lions have been released into Rwanda's Akagera National Park!



update (01 July 2015): The seven lions from South Africa have arrived in Rwanda's Akagera National Park!

Posted by The New Times Publications on Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Lions will return to Rwanda for the first time in 15 (20?) years, after the species was wiped out in the country following the 1994 genocide. The non-profit organisation African Parks is currently translocating seven lions from South Africa - two males and five females - into Akagera National Park, located in eastern Rwanda bodering Tanzania. The lions, which have been donated by &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu Natal and by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife from Tembe Elephant Park also in KZN, are today (29 June 2015) being transported from South Africa and will arrive in Akagera National Park on 30 June 2015 after an approximately 26 hour journey.

On arrival in Akagera National Park, the seven lions will be placed in a specially-erected 1,000m² boma. They will be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days, during which they will be continually monitored, before being released into the park.

South Africa: Lioness hunts down prey with GoPro camera mounted to its body (video)

South African animal behaviourist Kevin Richardson, also known as the "lion whisperer", posted a video to YouTube (via GoPro's youtube channel) offering a piggyback view of a lioness named Meg hunting down a water buck in the wild. The rare video was filmed by strapping a GoPro camera onto the animal’s back. Eish!



Kevin's "Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary" is located just an hour north east of Johannesburg and half an hour from Pretoria in the Welgedacht Private Game Reserve, which forms part of the Dinokeng Game Reserve. Since 01 Nov 2013 Kevin's Wildlife Sanctuary is open to the public. Tours include a welcome refreshment, sanctuary tour and a guided game drive with a Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA) guide in the greater area of the Big Five Reserve, as well as a boma braai lunch at the end of the tour. For more information please visit Kevin's website!

Video: Kevin Richardson playing football with lions

Kevin Richardson, also known as the "lion whisperer", recently shot a commercial video for Van Gils, a Dutch fashion company. As Van Gils is the official tailor of the KNVB (Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond/Royal Dutch Football Association), Kevin is not only talking about his passion for lions and their uncertain future in the spot, he is also playing football/soccer with them. According to Van Gils and Kevin Richardson this is actually a "a world's first". Enjoy! Kudos Van Gils and Kevin Richardson!



Kevin's "Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary" is located just an hour north east of Johannesburg and half an hour from Pretoria in the Welgedacht Private Game Reserve, which forms part of the Dinokeng Game Reserve. For more information please visit Kevin's website!

Kevin Richardson: Lions - The new endangered species? (video) >>

Marakele National Park welcomes two new lions

To diversify the gene pool for lions in Marakele National Park, South African National Parks (SANParks) has released to new lions into the park. The cats, which are both male, were trans-located from Pilanesberg Nature Reserve in the North West Province. They arrived in Marakele National Park in March 2014 and were kept in a boma to acclimatise to the new surroundings and strengthen the bond with one another.
In 2013 SANParks already introduced two male lions as well as four lion cups to Marakele. The translocation of the two new cats brings the total number in the Park to 23 lions.

Marakele National Park is located in the Waterberg Biosphere in South Africa's Limpopo Province and covers about 670 square kilometres. The Park's accommodation options include two camp sites, namely Tlopi Tented Camp and Bontle Camping Site, and the Motswere Guest Cottage, a farm-house turned guest cottage self-catering unit.

iSimangaliso Wetland Park: Lions reintroduced after a 44-year absence!

A first family of four lions - an adult female and three sub-adult offspring (a male and two females) - were recently released to the uMkhuze section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu Natal after a 44-year absence. The four are the first of a total of eight planned for this section of the park. The lions were translocated from Tembe Elephant Park in northern KwaZulu Natal and had spent five weeks in a purpose-built boma to acclimatise them to their new environment before being released. Two more females and a coalition of two males (brothers) will follow to form the base of the new iSimangaliso lion population.

The addition of lions gives the iSimangaliso Wetland Park the Big 7 status because it is now home to the Big 5 (lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, rhino) as well as whales and sharks in the marine section.

South Africa: Three lions released into Mountain Zebra National Park after 130-year absence

update (06 June 2014): According to South African National Parks (SANParks), the three lion introduced into Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape in April 2013 have settled down well in their new home. After their release, the two male lion (brothers) were mostly seen together, while the lioness has been exploring the Mountain Zebra National Park on her own most of the time and only occasionally meeting up with them. Monitoring has also shown that cheetah tended to avoid areas where lion roamed. Although the two species had encountered one another, there appears to have been no major incidents yet, with the cheetah fleeing from the lion when conflict arose. 

The Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape is now home to three lions. The lions, one female and two males, are the first lions first free-roaming lions in the area after an absence of over 130 years. They are the third predator species in the Mountain Zebra National Park - cheetahs got already introduced in 2007 and brown hyenas in 2008. The lions are collared so that the management of the National Park can monitor them in the first few months or years after release and so that rangers and researchers can observe what habitats they use and which species they prey on.

Mountain Zebra National Park Manager, Megan Taplin, says the decision to introduce lion into the Park was mainly for biodiversity reasons. "Lions would have occurred here historically and it is SANParks policy to reintroduce the wildlife species which would have occurred in an area before hunting or habitat loss forced them to local extinction in earlier centuries.  They will also occupy the niche of large predator in the ecosystem, keeping the numbers of larger herbivores in the Park in check," said Taplin. (via SANParks)

Wildlife video: Lions vs. crocodile (South Luangwa National Park, Zambia)

Filmed right in front of one of the tents at the Zungulila Bushcamp in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, the video below shows two adult lionesses and five cups on their freshly killed impala as well as an uninvited visitor: a huge crocodile that got attracted by the smell... Enjoy!

Okavango Delta: A super close encounter with a 300-pound lioness

Earth Touch cameraman Graham Springer was in the Okavango Delta in Botswana photographing a pride of lions while a colleague of him was filming them from a different position. After a while the pride decided to walk off, but one 300-pound lioness took a different route, walked past Graham and got curious about a box right at his feet. Then the cat turned to Graham and had a look and sniff at his family jewels. Graham's only choice was to stand deadstill and to wait. Luckily the cat got immediately "bored" and walked off...

Thx to Earth Touch & Graham Springer for sharing the video! 

Gondwana Game Reserve: First wild lion cubs born in South Africa's Southern Cape in 150 years

The Gondwana Game Reserve, located in the Garden Route just 4 hours drive from Cape Town and 45 minutes from George, has announced the birth of two free roaming lion cubs. They are believed to be the first wild lion cubs born in South Africa's Southern Cape for 150 years. 
The malaria-free Gondwana Game Reserve, the only fynbos reserve in the world with free roaming big five game, is running an ambitious conservation project to restore and rehabilitate the 11000-hectare reserve by populating it with indigenous game. The birth of the two lion cubs marks the success of the efforts implemented to encourage the self-sustaining wild lion pride of the Game Reserve. Besides lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalos and leopards, Gondwana is also home to endangered species such as Cape Mountain Zebras, cheetahs, black harriers and black rhinos, as well as to more than 10 species of antelope.

Malawi: Majete Wildlife Reserve to reintroduce lions

Majete Wildlife Reserve, situated in Malawi’s Lower Shire Valley, will soon again be home of the famous "Big Five" - elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion. In August 2012 two male and two female lions, provided by the North West Parks and Tourism Board in South Africa, will be introduced in to the reserve. The four animals will be selected from Pilanesberg Game Resever and Madikwe Game Reserve and the intricate relocation process will involve weeks of quarantine on both sides of the border.
The reintroduction of the lions will restore the park to a naturally functioning ecosystem and will mark a significant milestone in the rehabilitation of the 70 000 hectare Majete Wildlife Reserve. Historically lions were considered to be common in the Lower Shire Valley but by the early 1960s scouts in Majete were recording only one lion every 100 patrol days. Over the years poaching took its toll and there have been no reports of lions in the region since the 1980s.
With the opening of the luxury Mkulumadzi Lodge last year and with the only "Big Five" game viewing experience to be offered in Malawi, Majete Wildlife Reserve's future looks actually pretty good.