It has been assumed by many that the health of Zimbabwe’s parks must be in as much trouble as the nation itself, with rumours of increased poaching and big game hunting decimating wild animal populations. We thought we’d test the waters and recently sent Geoffrey Dean to Hwange National Park. His findings may surprise you.
Despite the economic, human and political crisis in Zimbabwe, Hwange, its best-known national park, is faring better than might be expected. The park is teeming with wildlife and, while British visitors are uncommon, continental Europe and North America are providing a loyal client base that is playing an important part in keeping the camps financially viable.
In 2009, Hwange will celebrate its 60th anniversary as a national park. The land, originally one of Herbert Robins’ ranches, was taken over by the government in 1928 and proclaimed a reserve. Much of the park’s longevity is owed to its first warden, Ted Davison. He found it largely devoid of bigger species thanks to indiscriminate hunting and the effects of a savage outbreak of rinderpest in the 1890s. Its soil – Kalahari sandveld – did not sustain surface water, and as old rivers no longer existed, its pans filled only after seasonal rains. Davison devised a system of boreholes, creating 60 new ones to feed the pans and troughs, which led to the increase in animal populations.
Now, besides the estimated 30,000 elephants and 350 or so adult lions, Hwange’s extensive grasslands and thick forests of Rhodesian teak, giant red mahogany and African ebony are now home to over 400 species of birds and 106 other species of mammals. At 14,650 square kilometres, it is also one of the biggest parks in southern Africa. Its 350km of viewing tracks allow visitors to travel far and wide without crossing paths with other visitors.
With Zimbabwe’s National Parks department permanently cash-strapped, Hwange does not receive the funds it needs but is aided greatly by feedback and assistance from worthy initiatives such as the Hwange Lion Project and the Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) project. The former has been run since 1999 by Dr Andrew Loveridge, who collates information from his Oxford University base, while Jane Hunt leads a five-strong field work team in the park itself. Housed at Main Camp, the quintet, aided by Loveridge for some of the year, monitor lion movements and behaviour. At the start of the new millennium, male lion numbers were dropping alarmingly, with many having wandered into concessions next door to the park and having fallen victim to trophy hunting. A moratorium on hunting in those areas was enforced in 2004 to help get male numbers up to the right ratio with females – more males were needed to provide a stable social background for prides.
Jane Hunt, well known in wildlife circles in Africa, has been based in the bush most of her life. When I caught up with her in Hwange earlier this year, she went into fascinating detail about her work with the park’s lions and in particular about the old male named Mpofu, as wells as his three sons. They’d killed at least ten elephants towards the end of 2007 – one of which was captured on film by Animal Planet.
“I’ve been very lucky to be given a darting licence as only vets are normally allowed them,” she said, adding that a total of 200 lions have been darted in the park since 1999. Once darted, Jane and her team have 90 minutes to two hours to work on a lion. They then stay with it for another two hours while it comes round so that elephants or hyenas cannot harrass it. “Apart from the collar and ear tags for ID, we’ll take blood and hair samples, do body measurements and a dental check for age estimation. In addition, we also conduct a general check-up. We’ll give antibiotics if necessary and clean up snare injuries or sores if they’re man-made. We’ll check for parasites and tapeworms, although the lions are in very good body condition here.”
There are currently 51 lions in the park with collars – either satellite, VHF or GPS ones. Mpofu, who turns 11 towards the end of 2008, is on his fifth collar, and is named after the pan in which he was first collared at the age of three. He eventually moved out of his home range, a private hunting area, after his three brothers were shot in 2003, shortly before the hunting moratorium came in. That saved him and he now has the protection of his three sons. He used to have a huge range, travelling an area up to 1400 square kilometres, but he was pushed off it by two coalitions who were coming into their prime. His current range is tiny by comparison: just around The Hide.
I twice saw Mpofu, a huge black-maned lion, while staying at The Hide, one of the most comfortable camps in Hwange. Superbly located right by its own watering hole, it is 2km from Kennedy No 1 pan, with Kennedy no 2 a further 16km down the Masumamalisa Vlei. Both pans get borehole water pumped into them 24 hours a day throughout every day of the year – when the diesel is not stolen from their pumps’ tanks that is. These hold 200 litres, enough to run on for two weeks. Wildlife is inexorably drawn to these pans, in especially big numbers during the dry season – a herd of 1000 buffalo has been seen at Kennedy no 1. It is at that pan where the elephants were killed by Mpofu and his sons. Jane Hunt takes up the story.
“Elephant kills by lion have not been uncommon in Hwange,” she says. “But only in really dry, stressed years when elephants are in poor body condition. It happens when herds are at the holes and they fragment into groups. That’s when young elephants are vulnerable as they can get separated from their mothers. By inspecting the jawbones, we’ve ascertained that young males between the age of six and thirteen have been taken.”
For lions, killing elephants is a specific skill, one at which only a minority become adept. Hunt has no doubt that Mpofu has passed on his expertise in the art: “He’s a very clever lion, who’s taught his sons how to suffocate elephants, in part by clamping their trunks – elephants seem to struggle in these situations while trying to breathe through only their mouths.
Inevitably, Jane’s team has had one or two close shaves with lions in Hwange. “We’ve been charged all the time both in a vehicle and on foot, but no round has ever had to be fired at them. Although the odd lion has suddenly sat up while sedated, one really nerve-wracking moment stands out in my memory. We were camping in a picnic site one night using very small lightweight individual tents when a lioness literally stood right over me. I lay absolutely still as she breathed over me. Had I moved, I don’t know what would have happened with that size tent. One guy unzipped his tent and turned his torch on to find a lion staring straight at him a few feet away.”
To keep the project going costs a considerable amount of money, with overseas donations constantly sought. “It’s an important project,” Jane says. “Our team of five is out there covering two thirds of the park pretty much continuously. We do a lot of the work that Parks want to do, but don’t have the resources for. We give them information and feedback they need. It’s part and parcel of managing wildlife resources correctly. In one of the most difficult economic and political times in our country’s history, we’re very pleased that research is still used rather than shelved. There are a lot of French researchers here now and the wild dog project is very big here too.”
Greg Rasmussen, founder of the PDC project, has funded the establishment of the wild dog rehabilitation facility just outside the park’s Main Camp entrance. Hwange houses the largest number of wild dogs in Zimbabwe, but snaring has been so bad in areas that they have become an endangered species in the country. Built in 2002 by local labour, and staffed 24 hours a day by specially trained dog keepers, the facility now also operates anti-poaching patrols that seek and destroy snares every day. The population of wild dogs has almost doubled in Hwange since the project began.
Apart from treating sick or injured dogs, bringing up orphaned ones, and aiding in the relocation of ‘problem’ packs, the project’s centre serves as an important educational facility. The community programme that the PDC carries out is vital in raising awareness among the local population. “There are kids living within 20 or 30km of Hwange town’s boundaries who’ve little or no idea of wildlife and the value of it,” Dr Loveridge says. “They don’t hear about it at school, don’t come into the park and don’t even know of the existence of certain animals. I’ve seen kids incredulous that something like a giraffe actually exists. We get out to the communal areas and try to let people there know what a valuable commodity they have on their doorstep.”
It also can’t be underestimated how much tourism contributes to the health of Hwange – a park unused is one that can more easily be abused. The newest top-end camp in Hwange to join the likes of The Hide and Wilderness Safaris’ two Makalolo properties is Somalisa, which opened in April 2006. Blending into the surrounding landscape, much of it camel-thorn trees, it is smaller and more intimate than The Hide. It is likewise situated by a pan, fed in the dry season by a borehole. Trunks from dead trees are used as poles for the tents, which have floorboards made from Zimbabwean gum trees. You get a nice view out the back to the forests to the east, and I awoke to a lovely chorus from songbirds and chirping from francolins. There’s also cleverly constructed swimming pool that allows you to cool down in the middle of a hot day. I found out that certain elephants even like to drink from it.
While sleeping in the park at the lodges mentioned above has its clear advantages, it also has a price tag that isn’t in everyone’s budget. An excellent alternative for those with less to spend is Ivory Lodge, which is situated within a Rhodesian teak forest just outside the park’s boundaries. Within a 2400ha concession, its seven cosy thatched cottages all have a good view of a pan and its associated wildlife. Its proximity to the main Vic Falls–Bulawayo road (and Hwange airstrip) enhances its convenience, making it an ideal location for a shorter stay. Hwange, though, deserves as long as you can give it, for it remains one of Africa’s truly special parks.
Geoffrey Dean reached Hwange from Johannesburg with flights to Livingstone on Zambian Airways (www.zambianairways.com). Transfers from there to Hwange were operated by Dabula Safaris (www.dabulasafaris). His time in the park was looked after by The Hide (www.thehide.com), Somalisa (www.africanbushcamps.com) and Ivory Lodge (
).
Despite the economic, human and political crisis in Zimbabwe, Hwange, its best-known national park, is faring better than might be expected. The park is teeming with wildlife and, while British visitors are uncommon, continental Europe and North America are providing a loyal client base that is playing an important part in keeping the camps financially viable.
