Hwange National Park (formerly Wankie Game Reserve) is the largest natural reserve in
Zimbabwe. It is around 14,600 sq km in area. It lies in the northwest of the country, just off the main road between
Bulawayo and
Victoria Falls. The nearest town is
Dete. Histories of the region's pre-colonial days and its development as a game reserve and National Park are available online [3][4][5]
In 2011, nine elephants, five lions and two buffaloes were killed by poachers.[citation needed]
In October 2013 it was discovered that poachers killed a large number of African elephants with
cyanide after poisoning their waterhole. Conservationists have claimed the incident to be the largest illegal killing of animals in Southern Africa in 25 years.[7][8][9][10] Two aerial surveys were carried to determine the extent of the deaths, and 19 carcasses were identified in the first survey[11] and a further 84 carcasses in the second survey.[12][13] Three of the poachers were caught, arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced. All royal game and elephant poaching offences now have a mandatory 9-year sentence and the supply chain is also targeted.
Cecil and Xanda hunting incidents
On or about 1 July 2015,
Cecil, a lion who had lived on Hwange National Park for 13 years, was killed.[14] This action spurred widespread social media coverage[15] and a petition calling for
Zimbabwe's president
Robert Mugabe to outlaw big game hunting permits.[16] Walter Palmer, the admitted killer of Cecil, had a permit and was not charged with any crime, as all his papers were in order.[17] Authorities in Zimbabwe have said he is free to visit the country. Charges were initially laid against Theo Bronkhorst, Palmer's guide, for "failing to stop an illegal hunt" but these were later thrown out of court.[18]
Two years after Cecil's killing, his son
Xanda met a similar fate. Unlike that of his father, Xanda's killing was not termed illegal, though it did provoke outrage.[19][20][21]
Biodiversity
Flora
The park is close to the edge of the
Kalahari desert, a region with little water and very sparse,
xerophile vegetation. The Kalahari woodland is dominated by
Zambezi Teak, Sand Camwood (
Baphia) and Kalahari
bauhinia.[22] Seasonal wetlands form grasslands in this area.
The north and north-west of the park are dominated by
mopane woodland.[2]
Although it has been argued that elephant populations cause change in vegetation structure,[23][24] some recent studies suggest that this is not the case, even with the large increases in elephant population recorded in the late 1980s.[25]
Fauna
The Park hosts over 100 mammal and 400 bird species,[26] including 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores. All Zimbabwe's specially protected animals are to be found in Hwange and it is the only protected area where
gemsbok and
brown hyena occur in small numbers.
Grazing
herbivores are more common in the Main Camp Wild Area and
Linkwasha Concession Area, with mixed feeders more common in the Robins and Sinamatella Wild Areas, which are more heavily wooded.[27] Distribution fluctuates seasonally, with large herbivores concentrating in areas where intensive water pumping is maintained during the dry season.[28]
Other major predators include the
lion, whose distribution and hunting in Hwange is strongly related to the pans and waterholes.[31]
Since 2005, the protected area is considered a
Lion Conservation Unit together with the
Okavango Delta.[32]
Elephants have been enormously successful in Hwange and the population has increased to far above that naturally supported by such an area.[33] This population of elephants has put a lot of strain on the resources of the park. There has been a lot of debate on how to deal with this, with parks authorities implementing culling to reduce populations,[34] especially during 1967 to 1986. The elephant population doubled in the five years following the end of culling in 1986.[35]
National Parks Scientific Services co-ordinates two major conservation and research projects in the park:
National Leopard Project, which is surveying numbers of leopard to obtain base-line data for later comparative analysis with status of leopard in consumptive (hunting) areas and Communal Land bordering the National Park.[36] This is carried out at Hwange in conjunction with the Wildlife Conservation and Research Unit of
Oxford University and the Dete Animal Rescue Trust, a registered wildlife conservation Trust
Painted Dog Project: The project aims to protect and increase the range and numbers of
African wild dog both in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa, and operates through the Painted Dog Conservation organisation in Dete.[37]
Birds
This overview is only one indication of the diversity of birds in the park and is not a complete list.
Most of the park is underlain by Kalahari Sands.[39] In the north-west there are
basalt lava flows of the
Batoka Formation, stretching from south of Bumbusi to the Botswana border.[40][41][42] In the north-central area, from Sinamatella going eastwards, there are
granites and
gneisses of the Kamativi-Dete Inlier[43] and smaller inliers of these rocks are found within the basalts in the north-west.[44]
The north and north-west of the park are drained by the Deka and Lukosi rivers and their tributaries, and the far south of the park is drained by the Gwabadzabuya River, a tributary of the
Nata River. There are no rivers in the rest of the park, although there are fossil drainage channels in the main camp and Linkwasha areas, which form seasonal wetlands. In these areas without rivers, grassy pan depressions and pans have formed. Some of these pans, such as many of the pans in the Shumba area, fill with rainwater, while others, such as Ngweshla, Shakwanki and Nehimba, are fed by natural groundwater seeps.[45][46] Many of the pans are additionally supplied by water pumped from underground by park authorities.[47]
Archaeological, historical and cultural sites
People have lived in the region for tens of thousands of years, as attested by numerous archaeological sites ranging from early Stone Age to the historic era. Stone age foragers hunted and gathered in the region, leaving numerous sites with stone tools throughout today's park. They made engravings of animal hoofprints on sandstone rockshelter walls with some small rock paintings in the park's northwest.[48] Iron-age people built large and small stone-walling sites in the park, such Mtoa [49] and the
Bumbusi National Monument.[2] Information about the people who once lived in today's park is available online.[50][51][2]
Longone Pans, named after the chief cook during the first warden's time[47]
Ngweshla Pan, a waterhole heavily frequented by game since before the park's proclamation[2]
Shapi Pan, another waterhole heavily frequented by game since before the park's proclamation[2] and former headquarters of the park maintenance unit[47]
Sibaya Pan
Sinamatella area
Chawato Springs, a mineral spring north-west of Sinamatella on the Bumbusi road[53]
Dabashuro (Dobashura) Spring, a mineral spring west of Sinamatella[53]
Salt Springs
Tshakabika Hot Springs, a thermal spring east of Sinamatella[53]
Reedbuck vlei, at the headwaters of the Deka River
Accommodation and camping
The park has three large rest camps and four smaller permanent camps. A history of the establishment of the large camps is available online.[55]
Main camp
This is the park headquarters, in the north-east, easily accessible by tarred road from the main
Bulawayo–
Victoria Falls road.[26]
Camping and picnic sites
In addition, overnight camping is permitted at picnic sites and some of the platforms overlooking waterholes; bookings must be made in advance with the National Parks board. Camping is restricted to one party at a time and during the day, the facilities are open to all visitors. The sites are:
Nyamandhlovu Platform
Guvalala Platform
Kennedy 1 Picnic Site
Jambile Picnic Site
Ngweshla Camp
Shumba Camp
Masuma Camp, a fully fenced site with two flush toilets, a shower and hide overlooking the dam[54]
^Cumming, D.H.M., Fenton, M.B., Rautenbach, I.L., Taylor, R.D., Cumming, G.S., Cumming, M.S., Dunlop, J.M., Ford, G.S., Hovorka, M.D., Johnston, D.S., Kalcounis, M.C., Mahlanga, Z., and C.V. Portfors (1997).
"Elephants, woodlands and biodiversity in southern Africa". South African Journal of Science. 93: 231–236. Archived from
the original on 26 November 2016.{{
cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
^Valeix, Marion; Fritz, Hervé; Dubois, Ségolène; Kanengoni, Kwanele; Alleaume, Samuel; Saïd, Sonia (2007). "Vegetation structure and ungulate abundance over a period of increasing elephant abundance in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe". Journal of Tropical Ecology. 23: 87.
doi:
10.1017/S0266467406003609.
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^Valeix, Marion (2011). "Temporal dynamics of dry-season water-hole use by large African herbivores in two years of contrasting rainfall in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe". Journal of Tropical Ecology. 27 (2): 163.
doi:
10.1017/S0266467410000647.
S2CID85918271.
^J.C.Ferguson (1938). Geological reconnaissance in the Wankie Game Reserve (Report). Zimbabwe Geological Survey Technical Files.
^B.Lightfoot (1912). "The Geology of the North-Western Part of the Wankie Coalfield, Southern Rhodesia". Southern Rhodesia Geological Survey Bulletin. 4 (1).
^R.L.A. Watson (1960). "The Geology and Coal Resources of the Country around Wankie, Southern Rhodesia". Southern Rhodesia Geological Survey Bulletin. 48.
^B. Lightfoot (1914). "The Geology of the North-western part of the Wankie Coalfield". Southern Rhodesia Geological Survey Bulletin. 4.
^N.H. Lockett (1979). "The Geology of the Country Around Dett". Rhodesia Geological Survey Bulletin. 85.
^D. Love (1999). "Crystalline inliers to the south of Hwange". Geological Society of Zimbabwe Newsletter (July 1999): 5.
^Loveridge, A. J.; Hunt, J.E.; Murindagomo, F. (2006). "Influence of drought on predation of elephant (Loxodonta africana) calves by lions (Panthera leo) in an African wooded savannah". Journal of Zoology. 270 (3): 523–530.
doi:
10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00181.x.
^Dudley, J. P.; Craig, G. C.; Gibson, D. ST. C.; Haynes, G.; Klimowicz, J. (2003). "Drought mortality of bush elephants in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe". African Journal of Ecology. 39 (2): 187–194.
doi:
10.1046/j.0141-6707.2000.00297.x.
^
abcdefT. Davison (1967). Wankie: The Story Of A Great Game Reserve. Books of Africa. p. 211.