The Pilanesberg National Park is located north of Rustenburg in the North West Province 2 hours away for Johannesburg .The park borders on the Sun City entertainment complex.
The park has a rich array of southern African wildlife including the Big 5, the 5 most dangerous game animals in Africa(lion, elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, and leopard). Most of the large animal species of southern Africa live in the Pilanesberg National Park today, including lions, elephants, black rhinos, white rhinos, Cape buffaloes, leopards, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, hippos and crocodiles. The Cape wild dog (Lycaon pictus pictus) was extirpated from the park by poachers, but subsequent reintroduction efforts were successful. The Pilanesberg is not in a location which the Big Five animals would naturally inhabit, however they have been brought into the 550 square kilometres of African bushland. The reserve is also home to brown hyenas.
As of December 2010 the total count of large mammals was approximately 10,000