South Luangwa

Declared in 1972 over a game reserve established in the 1930s, South Luangwa is reckoned the birthplace of the modern walking safari, an idea developed in the 1950s by the ranger and later conservationist Norman Carr, who began taking visitors on foot through the park rather than watching wildlife solely from vehicles — a format now copied in reserves across Africa. The park holds Thornicroft's giraffe, an endemic subspecies recognisable by its characteristic star-shaped blotches, which exists only in the Luangwa valley and nowhere else in the world, with a total population of barely a few hundred.