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LITTLE RHINO FOOTPRINTS ANNOUNCE..... A NEW ARRIVAL IN THE MATUSADONA NATIONAL PARK!
The Zambezi Society is delighted to report that a new baby rhino calf has been born in the Matusadona National Park Black Rhino Intensive Protection Zone. Our Rhino Monitoring Co-ordinator, Dumisani Moyo reports that she is a female, which is good news for future breeding prospects. Here is a picture of her little spoor (above left) and of the calf herself with her mother, Mvura (above right).
On behalf of the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, we have asked Chisipite Junior School, whose Grade Six pupils and teachers do a sterling job raising funds for rhino conservation every year, to name the new baby. We await their deliberations.
Even better news is that our monitors in the Park report that three other black rhino females (Boma, Cleopatra and Jesse) are also expecting calves this year. We hope to have good news of these later in the year.
EMERGENCY APPEAL! PLEASE HELP US TO PREVENT THE MATUSADONA RHINOS BEING TARGETED FOR POACHING! WE NEED TO RAISE US$3500 – CAN YOU ASSIST?
In
view of the massive increase in rhino poaching that is sweeping Southern Africa
at the moment, a Zimbabwe-wide exercise to improve rhino protection and management
is underway. As part of this, the Zambezi Society will be deploying its Piper
SuperCub aircraft on a week-long exercise in July to assist veterinarians
from the Aware Trust and staff of the Parks and Wildlife Authority to dehorn
and ear-notch the black rhinos in the Matusadona National Park and Intensive
Protection Zone. A large part of the funding has been provided by SAVE Australia,
but each organisation involved is required to contribute towards the costs
of the exercise.
The aim of these operations is :
- to ensure that all the black rhino in the Park are individually identifiable
for monitoring purposes,
- to reduce their risk from poaching by removing their horns,
- to provide a higher level of monitoring of the Matusadona black rhino population
(including ongoing collection, storage and analysis of relevant data)
- to provide a higher level of support to the Parks and Wildlife Authority
for anti-poaching patrols (including vehicle back-up, equipment and fuel)
The Zambezi Society is most grateful to have already secured
assistance from Chisipite Junior School, from Redan Petroleum (fuel) and from
Pan African Mining (who are supplying a truck to move fuel supplies into Kariba
by road). But we URGENTLY need to raise around US$3500 to cover the costs
of:
- Pilot time and aviation fuel for flying the Zambezi Society aircraft to
locate animals
- Fuel supplies for deploying the support teams on-the-ground
If you can help with a donation, (however small), please make
a direct deposit or transfer, clearly marked RHINO EMERGENCY into the Zambezi
Society’s US$ account (details below).
Bank: STANBIC BANK
Branch: MSASA BRANCH, HARARE
Branch Code: 3108
Account Name: ZAMBEZI SOCIETY
Account Number: 0240 054427 001
SWIFT Code: SBICZWHXAXXX
For more information, please contact the Zambezi Society Operations Co-ordinator, Peter Musto. E-mail: pmusto@mango.zw or call him on his mobile number: +263 772 249434
MATUSADONA WILDLIFE OUTREACH PROGRAMME STARTS AT RURAL SCHOOLS
The Zambezi Society, has started a Community Wildlife Outreach Programme with several schools in Nyaminyami District, on the western border of the Matusadona National Park.
Schools in these remote rural areas are extremely underfunded, lacking basic facilities, trained teachers and educational materials. Although they are situated right next to a major Zimbabwean National Park and Black Rhino Intensive Protection Zone, the children (and their teachers) have little idea about the value of the wildlife resources within the Park, or the long-term effects of poaching large mammal species like elephant and rhino (a practice that is increasingly widespread in their neighbouring area).
Mrs Leslee Maasdorp, who has spent years educating young Zimbabweans about wildlife and environmental resources, has this year brought her skills and experience to assist the Zambezi Society in helping these schools understand more about wildlife and endangered species and why the world needs to protect them. As Co-ordinator of Education for the Zambezi Society, Leslee obtained initial funding for the Outreach Programme from the Phyllis Aspinall Foundation, which is already working in schools in the area, helping with infrastructural refurbishment and provision of water supplies etc.
She then carefully selected a few target schools in the community and created for each of them a “Starter Resource File” with detailed, illustrated information about the world’s endangered wildlife species with a special focus on Africa. Four schools in the District received these as a basis for further work.
Then, between 29th March and 1st April this year, Leslee and her daughter, Dorothy Wakeling, who is President of Birdlife Zimbabwe, ran a two-day workshop at Mola Primary School for teachers and interested pupils from three schools in the area: Mola Primary and Secondary and Kalundu Primary. Ten teachers from these schools and around 50 of their pupils, varying in age from 9 to 19 attended. They were engaged in practical discussions and working sessions focused on wildlife and bird species, their habitats, how animals are used, endangered species, the threat of illegal hunting (poaching), the role of National Parks, and job opportunities in the wildlife, hunting and tourism industries etc. Additional wildlife resource books, posters, calendars, notebooks and pens were donated to each school as well as a pair of binoculars. The participants were given the chance to practice using the binoculars during afternoon field trips into the bush to identify birds and signs of animal life.
“We are learning new things all the time!”, was the enthusiastic response of one primary pupil who attended the workshop, while several teenage boys, who spend time in the bush herding cattle, entertained the participants with their skilled imitations of bird calls.
Despite living within 17 kms of Lake Kariba, the children at these schools have never visited the lake. So, in the next phase of the Outreach Programme, the Zambezi Society is working with the teachers to organise a quiz based on what the pupils have learned so far, the prize being a wildlife trip to the lake which will include a gamedrive.
The Zambezi Society would like to thank:
Charles Pickering from The Phyllis Aspinall Foundation for funding Mr and
Mrs Croxford who assisted with accommodation and transport for the workshop
and Solenta Aviation for providing discounted flights to Bumi Hills.
LEOPARD PROJECT: SPOOR TRAINING WORKSHOP HELD IN MAY
A workshop to train stakeholders in the conservation industry in carnivore management and monitoring techniques, with special focus on leopards, was hosted by the Zambezi Society and the Zimbabwe Parks Authority (ZPWMA) at Hwange National Park from 9 to 13 May 2011. The training is part of National Leopard Survey work being conducted by the Society and Parks, funded by the Darwin Initiative and in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of Oxford University (WILDCRU)
The twenty one participants were trainee ecologists and rangers from Zimbabwe’s
National Parks, Safari Areas and Forestry Commission Areas, CAMPFIRE representatives
from Rural District Councils, and staff from the Zambezi Society itself. A
combination of classroom (pictured left) and field work (pictured right) covered
the following topics:
Overview of leopard population biology
Distribution of leopards in Africa and Zimbabwe
Overview of techniques used in monitoring carnivores
Why study/monitor leopards?
Discussion on use of spoor as a technique to monitor animals including leopards
Differences between leopard spoor and other cat spoor
Leopard identification and aging - in the field
Aging and sex determination from spoor
Trophy size estimates using spoor
Spoor data collection
Spoor data analysis
The Zambezi Society would like to thank the lecturers for their time and valuable inputs: Nic Elliot (Hwange Lion Project); Godfrey Mtare (Senior Ecologist, Hwange, ZPWMA); Matt Mundy (former Zambezi Society Field Officer); and Rose Madisodza (Leopard Project Co-ordinator ZPWMA). We are grateful to the Zimbabwe Parks Authority for providing accommodation at Main Camp, Hwange; to the Hwange Lion Project and Chiredzi RDC for use of their vehicles in the field and to Peter Musto for use of his vehicle for transporting participants to and from Harare.
DEVELOPMENTS ALONG THE ZAMBEZI RIVER AT MANA POOLS
Despite the Zambezi Society having expressed its concern, as a stakeholder, about developments along the Zambezi River in Mana Pools, we are still unclear what the latest situation is in this regard.
In September 2010 the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA) told stakeholders about four proposed "joint-venture" riverside tourism development sites ... then there was one only... and now there appear to be two. The still unratified Mana Pools Management Plan recommends NO further riverside developments in order to protect Mana's special alluvial terraces and the wilderness quality of its tourism experience. Instead, it suggests that any future developments should take place at inland sites only.
In January this year, a delegation from UNESCO's World Heritage Committee visited to assess potential impacts of Zimbabwean and Zambian development and mining proposals in the area. Their visit coincided with the rains which prevented them from accessing some of the more remote and relevant sites. However they met with stakeholders (including the Society) who expressed concern about possible impacts to the World Heritage Site and Middle Zambezi Biosphere Reserve.
The delegation has sent its report to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee which meets at the end of June. We await the outcome of the UNESCO deliberations.
In the meantime, we encourage Zambezi Society supporters and concerned individuals who visit Mana Pools to let us know of any developments taking place along the river shoreline in Mana Pools that may be contrary to the recommendations of the Park Management Plan.
This year's unusually heavy rainfall throughout the region resulted in five Southern African countries issuing flood warnings – Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia, with river levels in the upper Zambezi and Okavanga rivers already being exceptionally high for this early in the season.
In February 2011, in anticipation of heavy inflows into Lake Kariba and in an attempt to lower the lake water level because of the need to undertake routine repairs below the dam wall, the Zambezi River Authority opened four of Kariba Dam's spillway gates. While this helped to drop the high water levels in the lake, it resulted in two weeks of massive flooding downstream along the Zambezi River.
Fortunately, the Zambezi Society received early reports from the National Parks Area Manager that some buffalo and waterbuck were once again stranded on islands in the Zambezi River downstream of Kariba. The Society moved swiftly to try to avert a potential disaster. Thanks to our generous donors, Redan Petroleum, we were immediately able to increase that month’s fuel donation to the Parks station in Mana Pools to 500 litres, to enable the Parks staff to quickly deploy their boat to patrol the islands in the Zambezi River and to chase any stranded animals onto the mainland while they were still strong enough to swim across the river (see picture right). The full force of the floods hit the area shortly thereafter.
The main Mana Pools campsite at Nyamepi and some lodge facilities on the banks of the river went underwater. Staff were evacuated to higher ground, and visitors to the National Park were forced to change their plans, as access to the main Zambezi River became impossible. Further downstream at the confluence of the Chewore and the Zambezi Rivers, the newly-constructed Chewore Campsite went completely underwater! (see picture left).
All four floodgates were then closed while repairs on the dam at Kariba were completed. They remained closed for some time until recently, when, once again, with high inflows, the lake levels crept up necessitating the opening of first one, and then a second gate. Almost all the shoreline grass has now completely disappeared under water on Kariba’s islands and along the shoreline. Animals once again face starvation as their food source is depleted. Emergency food rescue appeals have been launched by Bumi Hills and in Kariba town itself to help the stranded animals. The Zambezi Society is standing by in case we are required to do as we did in 2010 - launch an emergency appeal for funds, food and transport to assist the Parks Authority to save starving buffalo and antelope stranded on islands in the flooded river downstream when more water is released from the dam.
The Zambezi Society would like to acknowledge the extraordinary commitment
of its small voluntary management TASK FORCE. They are all busy people, and
their untiring efforts keep the Society’s work and projects on track. We would
also like to make special mention of the following, who have made recent and
generous donations to our conservation projects:
Save the Rhino International (on-going support for rhino monitoring in Matusadona)
SAVE Australia (support for our Matusadona rhino conservation programme )
Pan African Mining (assistance with transport logistics for rhino operations)
Zimbabwe Wildlife Fund – Australia (support for anti-poaching in Mana Pools)
Redan Petroleum (on-going assistance to the Society with fuel supplies for
all our operations)
Europcar Zimbabwe (reprinting of Mana Pools information leaflets)
Taita Trading (donation of vehicle tyres for use in Mana Pools)
Don't forget to join the Zambezi Society's Facebook page at this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Zambezi-Society/398649118412 and encourage everyone you know who cares about the future of the Zambezi River's wild places to do the same. Follow our latest issues and read what other Zamsoc fans have to say about the things that matter to us and our very special area.
Overseas members in Europe, please don't forget our limited, but exclusive range of Zambezi Society gifts available online at http://www.zamsoc.org/html/shop.html
