Thornybush Lodges are located within the protected Thornybush Nature Reserve and Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, part of the Greater Kruger ecosystem and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area which encompasses the Kruger National Park, private and provincial reserves on the western boundary of Kruger and Gonarezhou and Limpopo national parks in Zimbabwe and Mozambique respectively. This comprises an area of approximately 100 000 square kilometres.
Every guest staying at a Thornybush lodge pays a Conservation & Community Levy, with these funds going to the reserves and our community programme to support conservation, local employment and education initiatives.
Our lodges are located within one of Africa’s largest connected conservation landscapes.
Thornybush Lodges are situated within Thornybush Nature Reserve and Sabi Sand Nature Reserve.
Every guest pays a Conservation & Community Levy, with 100% going directly towards reserve conservation and neighbouring community initiatives.
Working as one team, handlers and dogs build trust through daily training and patrols.
Their remarkable sense of smell helps detect wildlife crime and follow tracks across difficult terrain.
The K9 Unit helps combat wildlife crime, including the illegal trade in rhino horn and ivory.
Join members of Thornybush Nature Reserve’s K9 Unit and discover the dedication, trust and skill behind one of South Africa’s most important anti-poaching teams. This unforgettable experience offers rare insight into the work taking place behind the scenes to protect wildlife every day.
The Southern Ground-Hornbill is one of Africa’s most endangered birds, slow to breed, and disappearing across its range. The APNR member reserves including Thornybush both fund and facilitate access for the project to nest sites.
On Thornybush, researchers work with a single natural nest, and one carefully placed artificial one, part of a wider effort across the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR) to give these rare birds more places to raise their young. Over 25 years of monitoring, that patient work has helped roughly triple the population.
Researchers at Colorado State University and the University of British Columbia are using NASA-funded satellite data to map changes in Thornybush’s woody vegetation since fences came down in 2017. The work reveals how elephant browsing is reshaping canopy cover, giving Reserve managers evidence to guide habitat decisions.
The research combines GEDI, Landsat and radar data to track changes in vegetation height, density and canopy cover. NASA Earth Observatory
Working with Elephants Alive, the Reserve draws on 25 years of research into elephant movement and vegetation impact. Across the wider study area, around 200 elephants have been collared and more than 3,000 trees monitored, helping managers understand how elephants shape the landscape and where iconic trees may need protection.
This is more accurate than suggesting the project “balances elephant populations.” It studies movement, behaviour and vegetation impact, then tests practical tree-protection methods.
With BirdLife South Africa, Thornybush Nature Reserve contributes to monitoring European Rollers, Afro-Palearctic migrants that travel more than 10,000 kilometres to spend the southern summer in Africa. Satellite tags, colour rings and field observations reveal their migration routes, vital stopover sites and habitat needs across the flyway.
The project began in 2021 and is designed to address a major gap in knowledge about the birds’ time in Africa.
Protecting rhino requires long-term commitment, specialist expertise and constant vigilance. As a tourism partner and the single largest contributor to Thornybush Nature Reserve, we help fund the dedicated teams and conservation work safeguarding rhino across the reserve.
By staying at Thornybush, you become part of this work.
Since its northeastern boundary fence came down in February 2017, Thornybush has formed part of the open Greater Kruger system. Black and white rhinos can move beyond reserve boundaries, making their protection a responsibility shared across the wider landscape.
Thornybush Nature Reserve has been a member of the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation, or GKEPF, since its establishment in 2016. Through GKEPF, reserves, Kruger National Park and specialist partners share intelligence, training and operational support to combat wildlife crime across the region.
In 2024, African Parks, The Rhino Recovery Fund and GKEPF moved 120 southern white rhinos into Greater Kruger reserves including Thornybush. Another 180 followed in November 2025. The two operations form part of Rhino Rewild, African Parks’ ten-year plan to return 2,000 rhinos to secure landscapes across Africa. A number of the rewilded rhino on Thornybush have subsequently given birth.
For the 2025 operation, Thornybush Nature Reserve built and managed a holding boma for a group of rhinos released on the Reserve into the open Greater Kruger system. Their protection continues through dehorning, field and K9 patrols, camera traps and aerial monitoring.
Protecting wildlife means looking after the systems that sustain it. Across Thornybush Nature Reserve, the habitat team controls and reduces alien invasive plants, protects vulnerable trees and reduces fire risk, working with conservation partners and local contractors to keep the landscape healthy and diverse.
Invasive plants such as prickly pear, queen of the night, lantana and guava compete with indigenous vegetation for water, light and space. The Reserve’s habitat team removes these species, giving endemic plant communities and the wildlife they support room to thrive.
With more elephants moving through the open system, pressure on large trees has increased. TNR has GPS mapped 29 vulture nests and, working with Elephants Alive, uses wire wrapping and rock packing to protect significant numbers of selected marula, false marula and knobthorn trees on the reserve from bark stripping.
The project created paid work for previous employees of Thornybush Nature Reserve who lost jobs during the pandemic. Employed as local contractors to clear excess wood from roadsides and lodge surrounds, which lodges on the Reserve purchase as firewood. This lowers fuel loads and fire risk, reduces outside packaging and limits the risk of the polyphagous shot hole borer entering the reserve in imported firewood.
The work is overseen locally and monitored by Crop Watch Africa on behalf of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area.
Every game drive, every night stayed and every Conservation & Community Levy contributes to protecting wildlife, restoring habitats and supporting neighbouring communities. When you choose Thornybush and its lodges, you’re helping ensure this extraordinary landscape remains wild for generations to come. Because the greatest luxury is knowing your journey made a real difference.
For guests wanting to immerse themselves further, the Thornybush Impact Safari offers exclusive behind-the-scenes conservation experiences alongside the people protecting this landscape every day and contributes to those initiatives.
Conservation at Thornybush is about more than protecting wildlife, it’s about restoring balance to ecosystems, empowering communities, and building resilience for the future. Every initiative, from anti-poaching to habitat restoration, contributes to preserving the Greater Kruger’s biodiversity.
Rhino protection is one of our top priorities. Thornybush Nature Reserve partners with the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation (GKEPF) to coordinate patrols, aerial surveillance, and advanced tracking systems. Our K9 Unit plays a vital role in detecting poachers, wildlife products, and illegal activity ensuring the safety of endangered rhinos.
The K9 Unit consists of highly trained detection and tracking dogs that support rangers in anti-poaching operations. These dogs can track scent trails for hours, detect hidden wildlife products, and often make the difference between a successful intervention and a loss.
Through Thornybush Community, we invest in education, enterprise, and environmental awareness. Projects like Kids in Conservation give young people hands-on bush experience, helping to cultivate the next generation of conservation leaders.
Thornybush Nature Reserve is a proud member of the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR) and a signatory to the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) Cooperative Agreement. This allows wildlife to move freely between private and national reserves, supporting large-scale conservation across southern Africa. The signatories collaborate across a variety of areas including safety and security, conservation and community development.
Guests can make an impact by choosing Thornybush’s Impact Safaris, supporting Thornybush Community, or visiting conservation projects on-site. Every stay directly funds our environmental and community programmes.
Thornybush Nature Reserve is a protected wilderness where several independently owned safari lodges and hospitality companies operate.
Thornybush is also the name of our hospitality company. We own land within the reserve and operate Thornybush Game Lodge and Saseka Tented Camp there, as well as Simbambili Game Lodge in the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve and a collection of private villas.
As a landowner, we also play an active role in the wider management and conservation of Thornybush Nature Reserve.
