A game reserve is private or state land that is dedicated to conserving fauna (wildlife) and flora (plant life) and is managed as such. In South Africa game reserves are fenced in to keep the wildlife out of bordering agricultural or other properties, it also contributes to preventing poaching. In other parts of Africa this is not always the case and game reserves often have open, non-fenced, borders with surrounding areas. A phenomenal growth in eco-tourism over the last few decades has led to the proliferation of private game reserves, now existing next to long established national parks.

During the 2003 World Parks Congress hosted in South Africa it was reported that at that time 15% of South Africa's surface area was under private conservation of one form or another. At the same time 7% of the country's surface area was under state conservation, thus an astonishing 22% of South Africa's surface area is either under public or private conservation.

A game reserve should not be confused with a zoo. Where animals in a zoo are kept in separate relatively small enclosures animals in a game reserve live out in the open as they would if there were now humans or civilisation. They are free to roam within the boundaries of a particular game reserve and they have to fend for themselves. Predators hunt to survive and antelope live of the available plant life and try to avoid predators...

A game reserve basically allows mother nature to do the work and limits humans from interfering. As game reserves do have boundaries and animals can only migrate that far in search of water before ending up in cities, etc. some interference is unavoidable. For that reason most game reserves will have at least some man made water holes (small dams) to supplement the natural limited water flow in rivers.

Because wild animals cannot be manipulated into "acting out" or posing for tourists, viewing them is totally different to going to a zoo. In a game reserve you have to go out and search for the animals - they won't come to you. You can do this on a self-drive safari (game drive) or by joining a guided game drive. The longer you spend in a game reserve the better your chances of seeing more animals from different species. If you go to a big five game reserve you're not actually guaranteed of seeing all of the big five. Leopards, for example, are vary stealth creatures hunting mostly at night and most tourists do not get to see a leopard on their own.

Going to one of the top private game reserves will increase your chances of seeing all of the big five significantly as game rangers are in radio contact with each other as they search for good sightings for guests. However, even then it cannot be guaranteed. A game reserve is not a circus and respecting mother nature means accepting that she will not always show you everything she's got.