Game drives in an open vehicle with an experienced game ranger brings you face to face with a multitude of game species, ranging from mighty elephant, lion, rhino and buffalo to tiny blue duiker and rock hyrax.  Lalibela is also home to cheetah, hyena, hippo, giraffe, zebra, warthog and numerous species of antelope, such as eland, kudu, bushbuck and wildebeest.

On thrilling night drives under the vast African sky, we search for the elusive bat-eared fox, aardvark, black-backed jackal, aardwolf and the curious spring hare.

You get two game drives for each night that you stay at Lalibela:  one in the late afternoon and one early the following morning.

Children's Game Drives

Children under eight enjoy special game drives with their own game ranger (parents and older children are welcome to join these drives too!)  For safety reasons, the children's rangers will avoid close-range Big 5 sightings.

Conservation is what Lalibela is all about.  Our vision is to manage and assist nature in every way possible to create a self-sustainable ecosystem. 

We are lucky to have people of the quality of Warrick Barnard, who heads up our conservation department.  Warrick is a qualified nature conservationist who has been in the industry for 8 years.  He has worked in the Timbavati, Kwandwe and Shamwari game reserves.  He was the wildlife management lecturer for the Dutch university, CHN, at their satellite campus in Alicedale in the Eastern Cape.

Current Research Projects

A number of scientific research projects are currently being conducted on the reserve.  These projects are very important in providing the necessary information needed for the future management of the fauna and flora of reserve.  All the projects are conducted together with the Zoology Department of Rhodes University. 

The current projects include:                                             

1. Elephant:         
   The effect of elephant on our vegetation
   The effect of elephant on invasive species
   Movement Patterns
   Feeding behaviour
2. Lion:                
   Movement Patterns
   Diet preferences
3. Giraffe:
   Feeding behavior
   The effect of giraffe on valley bushveld

Other programs

The Reserve is involved in a number of other conservation programs:

1.  Alien Invasive Eradication       
The conservation team is constantly removing alien invasive plants from Lalibela's land.  Alien invasive plants dominate and destroy indigenous vegetation (because of the lack of natural control agents) and therefore reduce the amount of suitable habitat for the animals. 

2.  Animal Re-introductions        
Lalibela aims to bring back all the species that once roamed the area.  All the natural species play a key role within the ecosystem.  Lalibela has already successfully introduced many of these species and will continue with this process as part of its conservation efforts.

3.  The Student Programme
Students from all over the world spend up to three months on the reserve learning about wildlife management and conservation.  The students are actively involved in the day to day management of the wildlife.