Nowadays about 400 elephants live in the park as well as 450 buffalos, numerous zebras and a number of antelope species. In 2003, 6 lions were released, which have well adapted to the new environment. This also applies to the hyena population. The park was continuously extended and now comprises an area of 145000 hectares. There are plans to extend the well frequented, malaria-free park by another 200.000 hectares.
The elephant park also deserves a visitor's attention for some smaller creatures, like the flightless dung beetle, which has survived in South Africa only in few areas. The insects roll big balls from elephant dung and transport them into subterranean breeding chambers. So a perfect recycling system has developed: the digested plants eventually become dung for the soil.
Top: Big elephant bull. Left: About 400 elephants are living in the park. Right: flightless dung beetle.
Addo Elephant National Park
Eastern Cape
The first settlers in the Addo region immediately decimated the big elephant herds, because they frequently devastated their fields and plantations. So the number of elephants continuously decreased, until there was eventually hardly a dozen of them left.
The remaining elephants became protected in the Addo Elephant Park, established in 1931. However, the surviving elephants were known to be highly aggressive. In an attempt to mollify them, they were fed whole truck-loads of rotting oranges. All together this experiment was successful and the elephant population started to grow again. These special feedings were soon stopped, but still today the elephants are mad for oranges, and will smash any car if they sense the smell of their favourite citrus fruit in it.
