Category: Safarie through Zimbabwe 2022

In Harare, we visited the elephant orphanage again at the beginning of our trip. There we met not only Roxy Danckwerts, but also her son Jos. Roxy is the founder of Wild is Life. This organisation consists of two branches, namely the Wild is Life Trust and the Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery (ZEN, https://www.zimbabweelephantnursery.com). After our trip to Victoria Falls, we also visited the elephant release centre in the nearby Panda Masuie area. This is run by Jos Danckwerts, whom we met again on site.

The principle of elephant release is amazingly simple. The elephants are cared for and rehabilitated in their boma. During the day, they go for a walk in the forest with their keepers. When it is feeding time, they come back. Some elephants then break away from this walking group and stay away for some time. They then usually rejoin the group. But there is no compulsion. Those elephants who can manage on their own in the wilderness can stay there.

We have directly supported "Wild is Life" from our association "Rettung bedrohter Wildtiere". Since Wolfgang Hennig is also a member of IFAW, he also donated through this organisation.

Jos Danckwerts had asked me, Wolfgang Hennig, not to publish the numerous very interesting pictures I was able to take on site at the reintroduction station for security reasons. I therefore refer to the interview he gave to IFAW.

https://www.ifaw.org/journal/jos-danckwerts-elephants-panda-masuie

The elephant pictures shown here were taken outside the release station during our trip.

After driving from Hwange NP to Victoria Falls, we visited the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust (VFWT).  The CEO is Jessica Dawson. As a souvenir, we handed over anaesthetics and awakening medication that Heidi Götzl had donated through our association. These medicines are very expensive and essential for the rescue or transport of injured wild animals.

Jessica took a lot of time to inform us about the tasks of the VFWT (https://vicfallswildlifetrust.org/projects).

• Rescue and Rehabilitation Program injured or orphaned wildlife

For example, the Trust has its own infirmary, which is looked after by the wildlife veterinarian Dr Chris Foggin. Two animals that came to the station as babies (Judge the vulture and Sylvester the cheetah), which can no longer be released into the wild, are used for teaching, especially for children as wildlife ambassadors.

• Wildlife Research                                                                                                                      

 "Wildlife research plays a key role in finding sustainable solutions for long term conservation. Increasing human populations places strains on environmental resources, including wildlife habitat."  https://vicfallswildlifetrust.org/projects/wildlife-research/

•  Wildlife Disease and Forensic Labaratory

This is not only extremely important for laboratory chemical and histological examinations of injured or diseased wild animals. It also serves to combat wildlife crime.  For example, ivory seized through genetic analyses can also be concretely assigned to killed elephants.

• Community Outreach according to the motto: 

"If we are to be successful in the long-term conservation of wildlife and natural resources we have to work with people." https://vicfallswildlifetrust.org/projects/community-outreach/

Mark Butcher is the owner of Imvelo, i.e. the Bomani and Camelthorn lodges, and at the same time the founder of the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative (CRCI). He not only made it possible for us to stay at both lodges, but also welcomed us at the beginning of our stay at Camelthorn for a briefing and a presentation via PP. The next day we were allowed to visit the anti-poaching unit with the rangers and with them the white rhinos that have only been living here for 2 months. We were not only able to see for ourselves that the rhinos have been relocated to a biotope that is wonderfully suited to them, but that they are also extremely well guarded.

Let's let Mark Butcher speak for himself:

White rhino are an easy target for anyone with a rifle, and the original populations were eliminated from Zimbabwe in the early 1900’s.  As a species it came dangerously close to extinction, but was saved by a small protected group in Zululand.  From that population, numbers gradually increased and the species was successfully reintroduced to their previous habitats around southern Africa in the 1950’s and 60’s. All went well until poaching took off in the 1970’s and continues to this day, with those populations which survive now only doing so with highly intensive protection.

At its peak, the rhino population in Hwange National Park numbered several hundred by 1970’s and 80’s, of which about 120 were white rhino. By the early 2000’s, poaching had once again eradicated the population from the Park.

Imvelo’s Community Rhino Conservation Initiative (CRCI) was conceived to reintroduce rhino to Hwange – providing better protection this time. The community living on the south eastern edge of the Park were already conservation conscious, so the concept was to establish highly protected rhino sanctuaries on community land bordering the Park. This would be the catalyst for a bigger conservancy and buffer zone between Park and community, supporting local people through gate entry fees, jobs, increased tourism and reduced human wildlife conflict.

Today, this could be one of the most exciting conservation projects in Africa:

• It’s about rhino, arguably the most endangered large African mammal

• It’s about community, not in a government Park or on private land

• It’s about creating a self-sustaining buffer zone on Hwange’s boundary to protect one of Africas great Parks and the communities who live around it

• It’s been achieved despite the COVID-19 pandemic and collapse of tourism

 https://www.imvelosafarilodges.com/crci.html

Mark Butcher and his team THANK YOU for everything

When we arrived in the south-east of Hwange NP, we were immediately surrounded by lions the next morning near Bomani Lodge.  I put a few not-so-serious words in the lions' mouths during the captions. But they were serious about playing. One lioness, for example, considered jumping from the tree onto the roof of our car to play with us. That's probably why I've never fidgeted so little in my life as I did at that moment in the car.

If you want to see the photos bigger, you have to click on them. The "Esc" key will bring you back.

Dr Richard Hoare and his team had fitted 15 giraffes in Hwange National Park with a GPS transmitter in their ears as part of a GCF (Giraffe Conservation Foundation) project shortly before our visit. The giraffes are being monitored by Oxford University. 1 day before our arrival at Bomani Lodge, our guide Pete had spotted a giraffe in the bush with a wire snare around its neck. The tether had broken so the giraffe was no longer tied to the tree, but was long enough to step on. After locating the giraffe, everyone was alerted (the National Park Service's Emergency Wildlife Rescue, the CWF's Anti-Poaching Unit led by our friend Steve Alexander, and the GCF with Jaco Olivier, with whom we had already been in Harare). The national park's veterinarian Dr Kudzai Muponde managed to anaesthetise the giraffe properly. The team remove the snare very quickly.  After the wake-up shot, the giraffe disappeared  into the bush. Unfortunately, we ourselves were a few minutes too late for this rescue operation. But we would only have been observers anyway.

On the north-eastern edge of Hwange National Park is the second longest, completely straight railway line in the world (115 km). The best train in the world runs here. It is a diesel-powered railcar that was built on the initiative of Mark Butcher for the guests of the Bomani and Camelthorn Lodges. The best because it stops for each animal to cross the track unharmed.

We stumbled from one highlight to the next. Now we went to see Jane Hunt in her field office. She has been leading the field work of WILDCRU (The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, https://www.wildcru.org/) in Zimbabwe since 2003. She too is concerned with lion conservation and strategies to avoid or defuse human-wildlife conflict after the human population increases by 200,000 people every day, threatening to take away the wildlife's last habitat.

We were also allowed to visit this anti-poaching unit. We were given a detailed briefing in the Situation Room by their leader Mike Pelham. It is unbelievable what this unit has achieved in the last 2 years after Matusadona Conservation Trust has been running Matusadona National Park. This trust is a joint venture between African Parks and the Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife Management Authority. Mike has been in Tashinga, the headquarters of the unit, for a few months. For security reasons, I only took 1 permitted photo in the room.

After our stay in Harare, we visited the Bumi Hills Antipoaching Unit (BHAPU) as our first stop in the wilderness. It is run by Mark Brightman and Catherine Norton. This unit has been supported by our association "Saving Endangered Wildlife" with considerable funds in the last time. As a gift, we brought medicines (anaesthetic and awakening drugs) for injured wildlife. Mark informed us about the tasks and successes of this unit by means of a PP presentation. We slept at the Bumi Hills Lodge.

Our trip began in Harare, where we met our friends, wildlife veterinarian Dr Richard Hoare and his lovely wife Sian Brown, who accompanied us from then on. We also met Jaco from Cape Town who works at Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF). We then met him again in Hwange National Park at his work.