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The field guide

Wildlife in iSimangaliso Wetland Park

iSimangaliso is a wetland and coast park first and a savanna park second. Its headline animals are the hippos and crocodiles of the St Lucia estuary, the turtles that nest on its northern beaches and the humpbacks that pass offshore, with uMkhuze and the lake shores holding the land game.

If you only want the answer

Come for hippos and crocodiles, which you will see on any St Lucia estuary cruise, nesting turtles from November to March and humpback whales from June to November. The last published count found 1,004 hippos in the St Lucia component (2013), and the Authority puts its crocodiles at about 1,000 adults. Elephant, giraffe and buffalo live on the lake shores and in uMkhuze; lions live only in uMkhuze, where they were reintroduced in 2013.

What lives here, and what your odds are

Read the colours as odds for an ordinary three or four day visit that takes in an estuary cruise, the Eastern or Western Shores and a day in uMkhuze. The park is spread over 220 km of coast, so each animal belongs to a section: hippos and crocodiles to the estuary and the lakes, elephant and buffalo to the lake shores and uMkhuze, lion, wild dog and cheetah to uMkhuze alone. Turtles and whales are not in the grid; they depend on the month, and the sections below give the seasons.

  • Hippo Guaranteed St Lucia estuary cruise; 1,004 counted in 2013
  • Nile crocodile Very likely Estuary cruise and iNsumo Pan
  • Giraffe Very likely Western Shores and uMkhuze hides
  • Zebra Very likely Western Shores and uMkhuze
  • Nyala Very likely kuMasinga hide, uMkhuze
  • Impala Very likely uMkhuze
  • Waterbuck Good chance Western Shores
  • Wildebeest Good chance Western Shores
  • Elephant Good chance About 110 on the shores, about 106 in uMkhuze (both undated)
  • Buffalo Good chance Named by the Authority for the Western Shores
  • Spotted hyaena Takes luck At least 56 identified in uMkhuze
  • Leopard Takes luck Western Shores and uMkhuze
  • Lion Takes luck uMkhuze only, reintroduced 2013; no count published
  • Wild dog Takes luck uMkhuze, part of the managed metapopulation
  • Cheetah Takes luck Named on the uMkhuze page
  • Red duiker and suni Takes luck Coastal Forest

No current counts are published for hippo, crocodile, elephant or lion. The hippo figure is from 2013 and the elephant figures are undated.

Hippos and crocodiles on the St Lucia estuary

At the end of 2013 there were 1,004 hippos in the St Lucia component of the park, the largest single population in KwaZulu-Natal, according to the SANBI Red List assessment citing the Ezemvelo biodiversity status report. In 1986 the lake held 595. No later aerial count has been published, so treat about 1,000 as the last firm figure. The often-quoted 800 has no census behind it, and the claim of Africa's largest hippo population is not supported by any count we found. Lake Sibaya holds the province's second largest population.

iSimangaliso puts its Nile crocodiles at approximately 1,000 adults, mostly in the Lake St Lucia system, and one aerial count found basking densities equal to 99 animals per kilometre in one stretch. Lake Sibaya again holds the second largest population in KwaZulu-Natal. Nile crocodile is a Threatened or Protected Species under South African law.

Hippos walk through St Lucia town at night, and they are dangerous. In June 2022 a woman was killed by a hippo on the Western Shores just before the bridge into town, and in October 2022 another was badly injured next to a lodge in town after walking into a signed wetland. Do not walk in town after dark, and never swim in the estuary, Lake St Lucia, False Bay or Lake Sibaya.

Turtles: leatherback and loggerhead

Only two species nest here: the loggerhead and the leatherback. Green, hawksbill and olive ridley turtles occur offshore but do not nest. The IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2025 gives about 80 leatherbacks and 935 loggerheads nesting each year, and the leatherbacks are the southernmost nesting population of the species in the world, with fewer than 100 females a year.

Monitoring began in 1963 under the Natal Parks Board and is one of the longest-running turtle programmes anywhere. Leatherbacks have risen from fewer than 10 in 1966 to more than 70 a year, and loggerhead nests from fewer than 250 in the early 1960s to about 1,700 a year. The 935 counts females and the 1,700 counts nests, and one female lays several clutches a season, so the two figures do not contradict each other.

Nesting runs from late October or November to about January, with hatchlings from January to March. The core monitored beach is the 56 km between Kosi Mouth and Mabibi. In nesting season the public may not walk the beaches at night; you go with a licensed operator or not at all.

Humpback whales

Humpbacks pass the coast from June to November, according to iSimangaliso's whale release and its Cape Vidal page. You can watch from the cliffs at Mission Rocks and from Cape Vidal, or go out with the licensed boat operator in the St Lucia section. The Authority's release also mentions southern right whales, but no count supports their presence this far north, so expect humpbacks. No population estimate for the whales passing iSimangaliso is published.

uMkhuze: the savanna section

uMkhuze is the park's inland savanna and fever-tree forest, 38,500 ha according to iSimangaliso. The Authority's undated news item, which reads as about 2017, gives about 106 elephants after 30 were donated to Zinave National Park in Mozambique, with 75 percent of adult females on a contraceptive vaccine. Lions were reintroduced in 2013 and the prides are described as steadily growing; no count is given. Wild dogs are managed as part of the South African metapopulation, and a carnivore survey with 250 camera traps identified at least 56 spotted hyaenas.

The hides are the way to see it. Nyala, impala, zebra, giraffe and elephant come to the permanent waterhole at kuMasinga, and iNsumo Pan has hippo and crocodile. Cheetah are named on the uMkhuze page, and camera traps have recorded striped polecat and aardvark. After rain, leopard and eastern hinged tortoises cross the tar roads, which carry their own traffic sign.

The Eastern and Western Shores

About 110 elephants range across the Eastern and Western Shores, according to an undated iSimangaliso alert that also warns of elephants with unusual behaviour near Dukuduku Gate. Keep 50 m away and stay in the vehicle. On the Western Shores the Authority names buffalo, leopard, giraffe, zebra, serval, wildebeest, tsessebe, waterbuck and reedbuck, and the Eastern Shores add spotted hyaena. In the Coastal Forest look for red duiker, suni and bushpig.

Egyptian fruit bats roost in the Bats Cave south of Mission Rocks, reached on foot at low tide only.

Under the water

Lake St Lucia holds 155 fish species, 71 of which use it as a nursery and 24 of which matter to line fisheries. Off Sodwana, iSimangaliso's lodge profile counts over 1,200 fish species on the reefs, which are Africa's southernmost coral reefs. Coelacanths were found in the Jesser Canyon off Sodwana in 2000; they live at around 100 m and deeper, out of reach of recreational divers.

Birds: more than 520 species

iSimangaliso's About page gives more than 520 bird species for the whole park; its bird-watching page and the IUCN Outlook 2025 say more than 500. uMkhuze alone has 420, the Western Shores over 400, Lake Sibaya 279 (62 of them tied to the lake), Kosi Bay over 250 and Maphelane over 200.

Water birds are the scale of it. The IUCN counts more than 20,000 waterbirds on a regular basis, Lake Sibaya sometimes holds over 20,000 waterfowl, and more than half of KwaZulu-Natal's waterbirds feed, roost or nest in the St Lucia estuary. Other specials the Authority names are rufous-bellied heron, dwarf bittern and Rudd's apalis on the Eastern Shores, green-backed twinspot in the Coastal Forest, and African jacana, pygmy goose and purple gallinule at the Kwamalibala hide in uMkhuze.

520+ bird species recorded
  1. Pink-backed pelican iNsumo Pan in uMkhuze holds one of only two significant breeding colonies in southern Africa
  2. Pink-throated twinspot Named by iSimangaliso as an Eastern Shores special
  3. Livingstone's turaco A forest special of the Eastern Shores
  4. Southern banded snake eagle One of the Eastern Shores raptors the Authority lists
  5. Palm-nut vulture A Coastal Forest special

Plants and threats

The Lake St Lucia area holds over 2,180 flowering plant species, according to iSimangaliso. The Sycamore Fig Forest in uMkhuze has trees the Authority says are more than 400 years old with trunks up to 12 m around.

The IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2025 rates the site Good with some concerns. It names the management of the estuary mouth, the reconnection of the Mfolozi River, invasive plants such as Chromolaena and Lantana, organochlorine pesticides found in animal tissues, and unsustainable fishing.

Sources

Where to go next

Best Time To Visit Which months put these animals in front of you Things To Do Drives, walks and boats, and what each one shows you Map Where the game circuits actually run