Region
South Africa Live Cameras — 9 official webcams
Nine cameras from explore.org's Africam collection: waterholes on the Kruger boundary, a Cape penguin colony, a lesser flamingo breeding site. South Africa runs seven hours behind Japan, so the daylight hours there fall across the Japanese evening.
What you can see
All nine are live streams in explore.org's Africam collection. Most of them were placed to show the relationship between water and animals rather than scenery, and they divide neatly by whether or not there is water in the middle of the frame.
Three cameras have water in them. Nkorho Bush Lodge sits in a reserve that shares 50km of unfenced boundary with Kruger National Park, so elephants and lions cross that boundary without noticing it. Tau is in Madikwe, the country's fourth-largest reserve, close to the Botswana border — elephant, giraffe, lion, zebra and cheetah all use the same water, and a Nile crocodile lives in it. The Olifants River never dries up, so its volume swings hard with the season; crocodiles and hippos are permanent, elephants and giraffe come down to drink.
Three are birds, and they could not be more different from one another. Stony Point is a reserve where Cape penguins — an endangered species — breed on land, nesting between rocks and low scrub, walking up from the sea in single file. Kimberley is a lesser flamingo breeding site designated an Important Bird Area; the counts the camera made possible now feed into the conservation work. The black eagle nest at Selati is filmed close in from the cliff face, which means that outside the breeding season you get an empty nest and rock.
That leaves three. Tembe Elephant Park is sand forest and wetland on the Mozambique border, known for having the largest elephants in Africa, and home to over 340 bird species and the tiny suni antelope. The HESC rhino enclosure takes in white rhino orphaned or injured by poaching and prepares them for release. Lisbon Falls is the only one that is not an animal camera — at 94m it is the highest waterfall in Mpumalanga.
The provider does not permit reproduction of its images, so this site carries no sample image for any of these nine.
9 cameras in South Africa
All 9 are live video. Tap one to open it in the camera list.
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Live video
Nkorho waterhole
Sabi Sand Game Reserve · Wildlife · Nature
A waterhole in a reserve that shares fifty kilometres of unfenced boundary with Kruger National Park, so large animals including elephants and lions move freely across it. The camera switches to infrared, so the night, when the nocturnal animals are out, is shown as well.
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Live video
Tembe Elephant Park
KwaZulu-Natal · Wildlife · Nature
Sand forest and wetland on the Mozambique border, known for holding the largest elephants in Africa. More than 340 bird species live in the same forest, along with the suni, a very small antelope.
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Live video
Olifants River
Limpopo · River · Wildlife
A camera set on the bank of the Olifants, a tributary of the Limpopo. It is a perennial river, so the volume of water changes a great deal with the season. Crocodiles and hippos are there routinely; elephants and giraffes come to drink.
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Live video
Tau waterhole, Madikwe
North West, Madikwe · Wildlife · Nature
A waterhole in Madikwe Game Reserve, the fourth largest in the country, close to the Botswana border. Elephants, giraffes, lions, zebras and cheetahs all use the same water. Nile crocodiles live in it.
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Live video
Black eagle nest, Selati
Limpopo, Selati · Wildlife
A pair of Verreaux's eagles on a cliff nest in Selati Game Reserve, filmed close in from incubation to fledging. Out of season it is an empty nest and a rock face.
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Live video
HESC rhino sanctuary
Limpopo, Hoedspruit · Wildlife
The outdoor enclosure of a centre that takes in white rhinos injured or orphaned by poaching and prepares them to go back out. Rhinos graze here while under care.
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Live video
African penguins at Stony Point
Western Cape, Betty's Bay · Wildlife · Sea
A nature reserve holding one of the land-based breeding colonies of the African penguin. Nests are scattered among rock and low scrub, and birds back from the sea walk up in single file. The species is endangered, so the camera doubles as a record of nest numbers.
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Live video
Lesser flamingos at Kimberley
Northern Cape, Kimberley · Wildlife
A lesser flamingo breeding site designated a globally important bird and biodiversity area. The camera makes possible counts that could not be taken before, and those numbers feed the conservation work. Pink birds stand in shallow water in a mass.
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Live video
Lisbon Falls
Mpumalanga, Graskop · River · Nature
At 94 metres, the highest waterfall in Mpumalanga. The river splits into three streams at the lip before dropping down the rock face, so on a high-water day the mist reaches the viewing deck. The audio is a recorded loop, not the voices of people at the pool.
When to watch
South Africa runs seven hours behind Japan, with no daylight saving. Local noon is 19:00 Japan time; local 06:00 is 13:00 Japan time. So the daylight hours there fall across the Japanese afternoon and evening. Open these in the Japanese morning and most of them are still dark.
Nkorho Bush Lodge is the exception: it switches to infrared after dark, so it keeps working through the local night. That is when the nocturnal animals move, so this one camera is worth opening even in the Japanese morning.
The seasons run the other way. August, high summer in Japan, is winter in South Africa. The provider gives no seasonal guidance for these nine, so neither does this site. Waterholes draw more animals in the dry months, but the provider does not say when those fall here, and it is not our place to decide that.
On the Olifants River the water level is itself the thing to watch — the same framing looks like a different place on a high day and a low one.
Agencies publishing the cameras on this page
- explore.org (Deep links and embeds OK, no image reuse) — Official site
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.