Addo Elephant National Park is a wildlife enclosure situated close to Port Elizabeth. It was first opened in 1931 by renowned naturalist Sydney Skaife, to provide a sanctuary for the eleven remaining elephants in the area. The project was a great success, and today about 450 elephants live there, as do many other rare mammals such as hyenas, kudu and Cape buffalo.

To house the growing number of animals, the original park has been expanded quite considerably since its opening, and is now about 2642 square kilometers (1020 square miles). Since the expansion, part of the more recent enclosure is Bird Island. The Island is an important breeding ground for many different types of marine life, but in particular for gannets and African penguins.