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Kafue, Zambia. August 18th-29th


douglaswise

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My experience of Zambia and both the KNP and SLNP goes back a very long way - to the mid 60s and early 70s when I was living and working in Lusaka. Unfortunately I was never able to get onto the Busanga plain during that period since the road was only graded up to the edge of the plain where it ended in a heap of black cotton soil. But all accounts always mentioned the large herds of buffalo which reached a climax of numbers amounting to several thousand at the end of the dry season, and of course the attendant lion prides.

 

When I returned to Zambia for the first time for a short visit in September 1975 I was at last able to get onto the plain. I saw a comparatively small number of lechwe and then the legendary huge herd of buffalo. Somewhere I think I have some film that I took on that occasion panning across a line of buffalo that occupied the whole horizon. There were also considerable numbers of wildebeest and zebra.

 

Now the number of larger herbivores has been sadly depleted, buffalo numbers having been reduced to a few hundred, but on the other hand numbers of smaller animals - lechwe and puku - have increased dramatically from hundreds to thousands. My own theory for the decline in buffalo numbers is simply large scale poaching for commercial bushmeat for sale in the copperbelt. As for the diminution of lion prides this may well be due to the relative scarcity of large prey. Although there is plenty of small prey, one lechwe or puku does not provide much nourishment for a large pride and, as I have seen, half a dozen lions plus attendant scavengers can totally demolish a puku in a very short time leaving no trace of the kill.

 

One can only hope that the increased tourist presence on the Busanga is starting to lead to a decrease in poaching pressure and that there will be an eventual increase in the numbers of larger herbivores, especially buffalo. At the moment roan seem to be doing well and the presence of elephant in quite large numbers during the daytime would seem to indicate that the Busanga is becoming a safer place for wildlife.

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@@douglaswise

@@wulff

 

According to some old documents, the red lechwe population was down to about 70 when Kafue was gazetted as a national park in 1950. The lechwes were so easily hunted… surround a mashy area in Busanga, the lechwes take refuge in the water, go in and spear them all. Because lechwes are so fecund, they rebounded once given the protection. Now there are several thousands of them in the Busanga area of Kafue.

 

Buffalo - not so lucky. The locals have a clever way of poaching them (not going to write about it as to give anybody else any ideas), but also ZAWA has sold big herds of them from Kafue to private ranches. Now, I do believe in the role of private ranches in conservation, but ZAWA clearly overdid it, basically wiping out buffalo populations in certain areas of the park. Buffalos are essential to the miombo ecosystem (among other things, they are firefighters, as they eat up tall grass that acts as fuel for fire in the dry season), as well as being essential for sustaining big lion prides.

 

Big herds of elephants can actually signify poaching pressure. They tend to bunch under stressful times.

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@@wulff and @ Safaridude:

 

Thanks for answering some of my questions. I suspect you are both correct in ascribing the relative swings in game numbers to poaching, impossible for a visitor gaining a single snapshot to assess.

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