Once ravaged by war, wildlife park in Mozambique flourishes
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LIONS are getting pregnant and the waterbuck population is soaring at one of Mozambique’s main national parks, once the scene of fighting during a civil war which virtually wiped out the park’s lions, elephants and many other species.
The 15-year conflict that killed up to 1 million people ended in 1992, and some former battlefield foes are now working together as rangers at Gorongosa National Park, where foreign donors and conservationists helped launch a turnaround on a continent accustomed to bad news about wildlife welfare.
Still, the park remains vulnerable to poachers and other problems. Tourism dropped in 2013 and 2014 during sporadic violence linked to the rivalry between Renamo, Mozambique’s main opposition group, and its former adversary during the civil war, the ruling Frelimo party. The park is also in Sofala province, an opposition stronghold in central Mozambique.
Gorongosa became a national park under Portuguese colonizers in 1960. The decade that followed is considered the park’s heyday; actors John Wayne and Gregory Peck and author James Michener went on safari there, according to the park’s website.
The civil war began in 1977 after Portugal’s exit from Mozambique. Fighters killed Gorongosa’s elephants for their ivory and slaughtered other animals, emptying a once-teeming landscape. Widespread poaching continued after a peace deal.
Today, there is a lot to see, thanks largely to a 2008 deal in which a non-profit group founded by American philanthropist Greg Carr pledged at least US$1.2 million annually to the restoration of Gorongosa for 20 years. More funding came from European governments, the United States Agency for International Development and other donors.
Workers have built tourism facilities, planted trees and relocated buffalos, hippos and elephants from neighboring South Africa into Gorongosa; money has flowed to poor local communities whose support for the park is seen as indispensable.
“Things are really starting to go quite fast,” said Marc Stalmans, director of scientific services at Gorongosa, which encompasses 4,070 square kilometers and was expanded to include the mountain of the same name in 2010.
The estimated elephant population went from 2,500 in the early 1970s, to fewer than 200 in 2000, and more than 500 in 2014. Similarly, researchers have counted nearly 60 lions, double the number a few years ago, but below the estimated 200 in 1972.
Four lions were pregnant in December, and at least one of them has produced a litter, Stalmans said.
“The biggest cause of mortality is lions becoming ‘by-catch’ in snares and traps set for antelopes by the poachers,” Stalmans said. “A significant percentage of our lions have lost toes or part of a paw to snares and traps but managed to break loose. Some unfortunately die.”
The waterbuck population is more than 34,000, 10 times the figure recorded 40 years ago. It is likely the single largest group of waterbuck in Africa.
Most of the park is inaccessible by road. To keep track of wildlife, researchers have installed 50 motion-sensitive cameras. Some cameras can only be reached by helicopter, including in limestone gorges. Some cameras were destroyed by elephants or inundated by rising rivers and were replaced.
Gorongosa’s last rhinos were wiped out in the 1970s. One day, park managers hope, rhinos will again roam there.
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