The reserve adjoins the Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site, with which it shares a 12.5 km Northern border.

Mapesu Private Game Reserve falls within the Savanna bioregion and more specifically the Musina Mopane Bushveld vegetation type according to Mucina & Rutherford (2006).

Superficially the Mapesu vegetation seems to be homogenous, however the plant communities are in fact extremely multifarious as a result of the diverse geographical and soil character and the complex system of drainage lines that run through the property.

After satellite images and aerial photographs of the area were examined, thorough investigation by road and foot revealed that Mapesu comprises 13 vegetation communities.

The yellow-bellied greenbul, Meve's (long-tailed) starling, black-backed puffback and tropical boubou can be seen, and southern pied babbler and Natal spurfowl (francolin) are very vocal as are orange-breasted and grey-headed bush-shrikes and grey-backed camaroptera (bleating warbler).

The various ecotones on the reserve provide the prefect habitat for many mammal species including blue wildebeest, zebra, waterbuck, bushbuck, impala, eland, kudu, steenbok, duiker, klipspringer, oryx, giraffe, bush pig, warthog, vervet monkey, baboon, porcupine, civet, serval, caracal, honey badger, aardvark, spotted hyena, brown hyena and African leopard Mapesu Private Game Reserve is a big 5 game reserve; elephant, cape buffalo, leopard, white rhino and lion can be spotted whilst on game drive with a qualified guide.