Niassa National Reserve

Niassa game reserve

Located in Niassa Province, in the far north of the country, this is the largest reserve in Mozambique and is home to its largest population of both elephant and wild dog. Lion, leopard, buffalo, giraffe, grey and red duiker, eland, hartebeest, impala, kudu, sable, waterbuck, wildebeest and zebra may also be seen.

 A vast untouched wilderness with less crowd, covering about 42,000 square kilometres, 12,000 elephants, and many thousands of buffaloes and sable antelopes. Just like other conservation areas in Africa, the Niassa reserve shares boundaries with Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, therefore there is constant animal migration between these two reserves.

One can enjoy a guided game drive in the wilderness even though the wildlife in this region are not used to vehicles and people, therefore seeing all the big five becomes quite unsuccessful to many visitors sometimes. Nonetheless visitors come to this reserve and return with satisfaction, because there is still many rare wildlife to be seen and a spectacular wilderness to be enjoyed.

Camping in this region is recommended, the Lugenda Wilderness Camp on the Lugenda River also within the Niassa reserve, offers tremendous camping experiences to visitors, walking safari, canoeing or boat safari as well as games drives can be arranged. Also within this region, bush expeditions such as birdwatching is recommended to visitors.

An estimated 20,000 local inhabitants live within the reserve’s boundaries, visits to these villages can be arranged to experience wonderful traditional cultures and practices from the community.