The Utrecht Balele Community Game Park in Utrecht, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa covers an area of over 2500ha and is stocked with no fewer than 15 game species.
Wildlife in Utrecht Balele Community Game Park includes Impala, Blesbuck, Blue Wildebeast, Red Hartebeest, Kudu, Nyala, Bushbuck, Common Duiker, Steenbuck, Burchell’s Zebra, Eland, Waterbuck, Mountian Reedbuck, Warthog and Giraffe, plus a selection of natural predators such as Caracal and Serval.
The birdlife in Utrecht Balele Community Game Park is prolific with over 250 bird species being recorded in the area and recently a wetland area has been rehabilitated, which includes a bird hide and has already attracted a number of new bird species to the park.
Utrecht Balele Community Game Park vegetation varies from open vleis and grassland to dense Acacia woodland and thickets, that stretches to mountain grassland on top of the mountain plateaus.
The development of Utrecht Balele Community Game Park was started in 1999, as a sustainable solution to the closing of the coal mines. It was envisaged that the jobs created by the Game Park would assist with the unemployment resulting from the mines closing down.