Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve
Overview
Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve is one of the largest areas of natural bush remaining in Greater Durban. It’s a natural mosaic of Southern Moist Coastal Lowlands Forest, Southern Mesic Coastal Lowlands Forest, Coastal Belt Grasslands and Coastal Belt Thornveld. It covers an area of about 250 hectares and is reminiscent of some of the larger lowland forest-grassland mosaics in southern Zululand.
Like those, it has a lot of butterflies!
What you can find
So far, it has a butterfly list of around 123 species including charismatic butterflies like Southern Sapphire Iolaus silas, Eastern Clouded Mother-of-Pearl Protogoniomorpha nebulosa, Blue-spotted Charaxes Charaxes cithaeron, Coast purple tip Colotis erone, Small Striped Swordtail Graphium policenes, Blonde Glider Cymothoe coranus, and Boisduval’s False Acraea Pseudacraea boisduvalii trimenii.
The trails are easy to walk and take you along the forest edges, through clearings, and to a high point where hilltopping butterflies may be seen.
There are other good butterfly spots around Durban, like North Park, Palmiet, Pigeon Valley, and Burman Bush Nature Reserves.
