This far northern reach of the Kruger National Park is certainly the wildest and most remote and apart from boasting an incredibly diverse and prolific birdlife, over three-quarters of the Kruger’s wildlife and vegetative biodiversity also occurs in the Punda Maria region of the Park.
The Mahonie Loop is renowned for its rare trees and animals such as the Sable, Sharpe’s Grysbok and the tiny, rare Suni antelope. In the summer months birding specials such as the White-breasted Cuckooshrike and Southern Hyliota can be found in the thickly leaved trees. The marshland at the junction of the H1-8 & H13-1 provides rare sightings of Black Coucal amongst the more common Burchells Coucal in extremely wet years and the mature Mopane forests en-route are good places to view the Arnot’s Chat and families of Retz’s Helmet-Shrike. The first Baobab trees near Klopperfontein Dam are a good place to start looking for herds of the rare Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest and Roan antelope which often occur in the Mopane scrub veld.
