| Matusadona National Park | |
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| Location | Zimbabwe |
| Coordinates | 16°50′S28°35′E / 16.833°S 28.583°E |
| Area | 1,400 km2 (540 sq mi) |
| Established | 1975 |
Matusadona National Park is a national park in northern Zimbabwe situated on the southern shore of Lake Kariba. The park takes its name from the local Matuzviadonha Hills. [1]
Matusadona was proclaimed a non-hunting area on 7 November 1958 before being declared as a Game Reserve in 1963, and then in 1975 it became a National Park, under the Parks & Wildlife Act of Rhodesia. Matusadona National Park covers 1,400 km2 (540 sq mi) of flat plains and rugged mountains protecting a diverse flora and fauna. Its area encompasses a combination of pristine and rugged wilderness, which was very inaccessible before the Kariba Dam was built and Lake Kariba created. The creation of the lake caused profound ecological changes. In particular, the availability of grazing on the lakeshore has contributed to an increase in the populations of large mammals in the park, especially elephant and Cape buffalo. The species of grass growing on the shoreline is Panicum repens which grows as long as the lake levels fluctuate bringing nutrients to the shore. This source of grazing has allowed populations of large grazers such as Cape buffalo, waterbuck, common zebra, and impala to thrive, attracting the associated predators. Matusadona National Park is an Intensive Protection Zone (IPZ) and home to several relocated rhinoceros. [2]
Matusadona National Park includes three distinct ecological areas. The first is Lake Kariba and its shoreline grasslands, the second is the floor of the Zambezi Valley, with its thick jesse, Combretum celastroides , thickets and mopane woodland, and; third, the Escarpment area of Julbernardia and Brachystegia woodlands. The woodlands do not have much grass but provide habitat for browsers, most notably the black rhinoceros. Elephants can be found throughout the park, seeking shade under the canopy of jesse during the heat of the day. [2]
From the floor of the Zambezi valley the escarpment rises some 700 metres (2,300 ft) and is extremely rugged. Elephant browsing and fire depredations have, in recent years, caused the once substantial woodlands to decrease allowing grassland to develop. This led to the park managers deciding that it was necessary to take control measures to reduce the elephant population and to carry out early burning programmes in the upper escarpment, to reduce the risk of later, hotter fires from causing serious damage to the trees. These programmes have been effective as demonstrated by regrowth apparent in the Escarpment area. [2]
Within a 450 km2 (170 sq mi) area there was +100 lions feeding on a bounty of Cape buffalo. The buffalo began to disappear after losing vital grazing areas to a rise in the level of Lake Kariba upon which the park is set on. This in turn saw the lions begin to decline. By 2004 a study estimated a mere 28 lions remained in the area but no research was available on their viability and/or any other threats the population may be facing. The population is still remaining at a low density and is therefore susceptible to a variety of environmental and human induced pressures. [3] Other mammals found include leopard, warthog, greater kudu and bushbuck. [1]
In November 2019 management of Matusadona National Park was assumed by African Parks, in partnership with Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, because of the deteriorated condition of the park due to rampant poaching. [4] [5]
The following campsites are within the Matusadona National Park: Tashinga Camp, Sanyati Camp and Changachirere Camp, as well as undeveloped bush camps at Jenje and Kanjedza for up to a maximum of 10 persons per camp. There are also what are termed exclusive campsites at Ume, Muuyu, Mbalabala, Maronga, and Kautsiga. [2]
There is a small, 800-metre (2,600 ft) landing strip available at Tashinga Camp which can take small aircraft. Many visitors access the park by boat either from Bumi Hills or Kariba town. It has relatively poor accessibility by road and an extremely harsh internal network of roads keep the crowds and traffic low. The roads are closed in the rainy season. [2]
The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers 1,390,000 km2 (540,000 sq mi), slightly less than half of the Nile's. The 2,574 km (1,599 mi) river rises in Zambia and flows through eastern Angola, along the north-eastern border of Namibia and the northern border of Botswana, then along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it crosses the country to empty into the Indian Ocean.
Lake Kariba is the world's largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume. It lies 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) upstream from the mouth of the Zambezi river on the Indian Ocean, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Lake Kariba was filled between 1958 and 1963 following the completion of the Kariba Dam at its northeastern end, flooding the Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River.
Gonarezhou National Park is a national park located in southeastern Zimbabwe. It is situated in a relatively remote corner of Masvingo Province, south of Chimanimani along the Mozambique border. Owing to its vast size, rugged terrain and its location away from main tourist routes, large tracts of Gonarezhou remain pristine wilderness.
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Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) is an agency of the Zimbabwe government managing national parks. Zimbabwe's game reserves are managed by the government. They were initially founded as a means of using unproductive land.
Chizarira National Park is a national park that lies in Northern part of Zimbabwe. At 2,000 square kilometres, it is the third-largest national park in Zimbabwe, and also one of the least known because of its isolated situation on the Zambezi Escarpment. It has good wildlife populations and some majestic scenery. The name of the park comes from the Batonga word chijalila, which translates into English as "great barrier", referring to Zambezi Escarpment, of which Chizarira’s rough terrain forms a part.
Kazuma Pan National Park is situated in Zimbabwe's extreme north-western corner, lying on the Botswana border a short distance north-west of Hwange National Park. Some 77,345 acres (313 km2) in area, it provides one of Zimbabwe's few areas of plains scenery, with good visibility and sparse but important mammal populations.
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South Luangwa National Park is in eastern Zambia, the southernmost of three national parks in the valley of the Luangwa River. It is a world-renowned wildlife haven which is known to locals simply as "the South Park." Concentrations of game along the meandering Luangwa River and its lagoons are amongst the most intense in Africa. The river teems with hippo and crocodile and provides a lifeline for one of the greatest diversities of habitat and wildlife, supporting more than 60 species of mammals and over 400 species of birds. It marks the end of the Great Rift Valley.
Mana Pools National Park is a 219,600-hectare (543,000-acre) wildlife conservation area and national park in northern Zimbabwe. It is a region of the lower Zambezi in Zimbabwe where the floodplain turns into a broad expanse of lakes after each rainy season. As the lakes gradually dry up and recede, the region attracts many large animals in search of water, making it one of Africa's most renowned game-viewing regions.
The Lower Zambezi National Park lies on the north bank of the Zambezi River in southeastern Zambia. Until 1983 when the area was declared a national park, the area was the private game reserve of Zambia's president. This meant that the park was protected from mass tourism and now remains one of the few untouched wilderness areas left in Africa. On the opposite bank is Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park. The two parks sit on the Zambezi floodplain ringed by mountains. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Zambezi Escarpment is a name used for the escarpments forming both sides of the rift valley or graben in which lie the middle Zambezi river and Lake Kariba. They are fault scarps, rising 500 to 600 m higher than the lake or river, running from the Batoka Gorge roughly 800 km to the lower Zambezi, and facing each other about 50 to 100 km apart, closer in the west and opening up in the east.
The wildlife of Zimbabwe occurs foremost in remote or rugged terrain, in national parks and private wildlife ranches, in miombo woodlands and thorny acacia or kopje. The prominent wild fauna includes African buffalo, African bush elephant, black rhinoceros, southern giraffe, African leopard, lion, plains zebra, and several antelope species.
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The wildlife of Zambia refers to the natural flora and fauna of Zambia. This article provides an overview, and outline of the main wildlife areas or regions, and compact lists of animals focusing on prevalence and distribution in the country rather than on taxonomy. More specialized articles on particular groups are linked from here.
Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, is the largest and oldest wildlife reserve in Malawi, near Nkhotakota. The park's hilly terrain features dambos and miombo woodlands as the dominant vegetation, which support a variety of mammal and bird species. Poaching has greatly reduced the number of elephants and other large mammals in Nkhotakota, but conservation efforts to restore the elephant population started when African Parks began managing the reserve in 2015.
The Zambezian coastal flooded savanna is a flooded grasslands and savannas ecoregion in Mozambique. It includes the coastal flooded savannas and grasslands in the deltas of the Zambezi, Pungwe, Buzi, and Save rivers.
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Zambezi National Park is a national park in Zimbabwe located upstream from Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River. It was split off from Victoria Falls National Park in 1979 and is 56,000 hectares in size. The park is bisected by a road to Kazungula, dividing it into a riverine side and a Chamabonda Vlei side. Most of the park is within the ecoregion of Zambezian and Mopane woodlands, while a small portion in the south is within the Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands.
The Southern miombo woodlands is a tropical grasslands and woodlands ecoregion extending across portions of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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