Mountain Zebra National Park in the Eastern Cape, nestled on the mountains near Cradock, takes pride in its efforts to preserve the mountain zebra species.

This Park was formed to protect eleven endangered zebras.

Residents came out in numbers not only to see the zebras, but to also enjoy the amenities that they offer.

The SANParks week provides an opportunity for people to access the national parks free of charge.

The Mountain Zebra National Park has over 1000 zebras among other wild animals.

The Park’s Hospitality services manager, Vuyani Dial says it is important to protect the wildlife for future generations to experience.

“We have got antelope, we have got zebra, we have got lions, well which attracts people we have got buffalo, as well and then we have eland. We have a variety of animals that you can find in the park. We have brown hyenas and I’m sure when you were driving through the park you saw that we have a lot of springboks here,” says Dial.

Mountain Zebra is the only national park that offers cheetah tracking in the country. This activity involves walking up to the cheetahs with the rangers and being able to be just a few metres away from them.

Dial says this sets them apart from the rest. “What sets us us apart is the cheetah tracking we provide in the park. We create awareness, we have splendid landscapes. And we have more than 1000 zebra remember the name of this park come from the 11 zebra here when they were due for extinction. But at the moment we have over 1000 which makes us very proud,” explains Dial.

Even though this national park is one of the smallest in the country, it has over 25 000 hectares of land and has three of the big five animals.

Some visitors, who had a night game drive at the park said they enjoyed the game drive .

“My husband and I are camping here , and we were hoping that this would afford us the opportunity to see a few animals that we haven’t been seeing for the last few days. To us this is like a gateway to some of the big 5 parks that we can visit in South Africa,” says one visitor.

Over 12 000 people visited the National Parks in the Eastern Cape during SANParks week.

--SABC--