Banhine National Park — Attraction in Gaza Province

The park was established on 26 June 1973. In 2013 the limits of Park were updated to better reflect the realities on the ground, particularly the human presence in the area.

The park is 7,250 square kilometres (2,800 sq mi) in area and holds extensive inland wetlands, acting as an important source of water to the dry lands that surround it. The park is in an area that has annual rainfall of only 430 millimetres (17 in). However, over 1% of the park is wetland and there are also more than a thousand pans that range in size from a few square meters to hundreds of hectares. These pans may be very salty or "sweet" and drinkable. The water comes from the area to the northwest near the Zimbabwe boundary, flowing through many channels into the wetlands and then into the Changane River.

18 species of fish have been found in the park. The African lungfish, two killifish species and two barbel species have developed ways to deal with predictable periods of drought. At times, the wetlands are completely dry on the surface.

The Banhine National Park used to be home to Cape buffalo, sable, common tsessebe, hartebeest, Selous' zebra, and blue wildebeest. Many of these animals were destroyed during the civil wars of the 1980s and early 1990s. However, the park is still home to endangered wattled cranes and to many migratory birds. Results of an aerial survey in October 2004 showed that the park had healthy populations of ostrich, kudu, impala, reedbuck, duiker, steenbok, porcupine, warthog and oribi. Predators such as leopards, lions, servals, spotted hyenas and even cheetahs are also found in the national park.

The Banhine, Zinave and Limpopo national parks in Mozambique, the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and the Kruger National Park in South Africa are the basis for the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that will link the Drakensberg Mountains in the west to the Save River Estuary in the east. The total protected area will exceed 95,624 square kilometres...

Banhine national Park is quite difficult to get to. Check the roads that you want to go on are open before you lose cell phone contact. It’s 4x4 all the way but worth the adventure. Beautiful pans full of bird life along the route. We encountered plenty of evidence of elephant but no actual ellie. The camp is beside an amazing lake full of lilies and birds. It’s a Peaceparks project and set to become part of the trans...

Coming in from the north of the park... there are more villages in the park than there are animals. Apparently the animals are in the south East coming in from...