[6] Sabi Game Reserve was initially created to control hunting and to protect the diminishing number of animals in the area.

[7] During 1923, the first large groups of tourists started visiting the Sabi Game Reserve, but only as part of the South African Railways' popular "Round in Nine" tours.

The tourist trains travelled the Selati railway line between Komatipoort on the Mozambican border and Tzaneen in the then northern Transvaal.

The sandveld communities northeast of Punda Maria are equally distinctive, with a wide variety of unique plant species.

[20] A fairly uniform aggregate of bird species is present from the southern to central areas of the park, but a decline in diversity is noticeable in the mopane-dominated flats northwards of the Olifants.

Some representatives of this group are the African openbill, hooded vulture, Dickinson's kestrel, white-crowned lapwing, brown-necked parrot, Senegal coucal, broad-billed roller, trumpeter hornbill, Böhm's spinetail, tropical boubou, Meves's starling and scarlet-chested sunbird.

[24] Some 30 waterbird and wader species are dependent on the rivers or associated dams,[26] including the African finfoot, white-backed night heron, white-crowned lapwing and water thick-knee.

Other species are limited to riparian thicket or forest, including African goshawk, crested guineafowl, Natal spurfowl, Narina trogon, Pel's fishing owl, bearded scrub robin, terrestrial brownbul and black-throated wattle-eye.

[28] They are the lappet-faced vulture, martial eagle, saddle-billed stork, kori bustard, ground hornbill and the reclusive Pel's fishing owl, which is localized and seldom seen.

[31] Kruger is inhabited by 114 species[32] of reptile, including black mambas, African rock pythons, and 3,000 Nile crocodiles.

As yet, knowledge of the densities and distributions of the reptiles, especially on smaller spatial scales, is limited by sampling bias and a strong dependence on the park's public infrastructure is evident.

[42] A new species of woodlouse, Ctenorillo meyeri, has been discovered inside termite nests, east of Phalaborwa and near Mopani Rest Camp.

[46] The park's ecosystem is subject to several threats, including intensive poaching, urban development at its borders,[47] global warming and droughts,[48] animal overpopulation,[49] and mining projects.

[50] Light pollution produced by rest camps and nearby towns affects the biodiversity of Kruger National Park.

[53] Floods or raising of the walls of the Massingir and Corumana dams in Mozambique could potentially damage, by silting, the pristine gorges of the Olifants and Sabie rivers respectively.

[56] The park's anti-poaching unit consists of 650[57] SANParks game rangers, assisted by the SAPS and the SANDF (including the SAAF).

As of 2013, the park is equipped with two drones borrowed from Denel and two Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters, donated by the RAF to augment its air space presence.

[58][59] Automated movement sensors relay intrusions along the Mozambique border to a control center,[60] and a specialist dog unit has been introduced.

[65][66] Kruger's big game poachers operate with night vision instruments and large caliber rifles, fitted with suppressors and sophisticated telescopic sights.

[70] In July 2012, a Kruger game ranger and policeman were the first to die in an anti-poaching operation,[71] while other employees reported intimidation by poachers.

[74] Rangers in and around the park have been pressured or blackmailed by poaching syndicates to provide intelligence on the whereabouts of rhinos and anti-poaching operations.

[76] In June 2019, a Helix surveillance aircraft system was deployed on night missions in the park, and apprehended half a dozen suspected poachers.

In February 2018, a poacher was believed to have been trampled by elephants and then eaten by lions, leaving rangers to later find only a human skull and a pair of trousers, alongside a loaded hunting rifle.

[78] In December 2021, two accused poachers were arrested in the Kruger National Park's Skukuza after they were discovered in possession of unauthorized rifles and ammunition.

[84][85] A memorandum of agreement is seen as a necessary milestone in stemming the tide between South Africa and Vietnam, in addition to the one with China,[63][86] while negotiations have not yet started with Thailand.

[90] In July 2022, Navara, an elephant poacher who frequented Kruger, was arrested in Maputo in a sting operation for possessing rhino horns.

But instead, the legal sale was followed by "an abrupt, significant, permanent, robust and geographically widespread increase" in elephant poaching, as subsequent research showed.

[95][96] The latest Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), summit voted down proposals for further one-off ivory sales from stockpiles for having led to increases in poaching across the continent.

[101] The larger communities include Bosbokrand, Acornhoek, Hazyview, Hoedspruit, Komatipoort, Malelane, Marloth Park, Nelspruit and Phalaborwa.