Queen Elizabeth Park Nature Reserve

The small Queen Elizabeth Park Nature Reserve serves as the headquarters of KZN Wildlife. The reserve is situated a short distance north of Pietermaritzburg's city centre, and provides an environmental education and outdoor recreation area for the people of the Natal Midlands. It contains a variety of habitats including forest patches, thickets, open woodland and grassland. Animals to be found in the reserve include Impala, zebra, blesbok, bushbuck, both grey and blue duiker, monkeys and rock hyrax.. Queen Elizabeth Park also serves as an excellent birding destination, and visitors can expect sightings of crowned eagle, African Emerald Cuckoo, Olive Woodpecker, both Tawny-flanked Prinia and Drakensberg Prinia, four species of canaries, an assortment of weavers, Common Waxbill and Zitting Cisticola to mention a few.

There are a large number of indigenous and exotic plants growing in the reserve, but of special interest are the numerous species of cycads which grow around the Douglas Mitchell Centre, and the endangered Hilton daisies which grow naturally in the grasslands in the park. The Queen Elizabeth park nature reserve also features a model bird garden and the circular self-guided iDube Trail, which offers beautiful views over the city. The reserve also has a small resource centre, and a variety of environmental education workshops are run regularly there throughout the year. Visitors can also make use of three picnic areas with barbecue and ablution facilities.