WHEN IT ALL COMES TOGETHER FOR WILDLIFE...
Z
ambia’s South Luangwa National Park marks the end of the Great Rift Valley, is a world-renowned wildlife haven and home to a dazzling array of fauna and flora. The wide, meandering Luangwa River, with its oxbow lakes and lagoons, plays host to huge concentrations of game— amongst the densest in Africa. The river, teeming with crocodiles and hippos, provides a lifeline for a huge diversity of habitats and wildlife, supporting more than 60 species of mammals and over 400 bird species. South Luangwa is home to elephants and buffalo, often in herds numbering hundreds strong. There are large populations of the beautiful Thornicroft’s giraffe, with their white legs and faces. Crawshay's zebra (a subspecies of plains zebra) and Cookson’s wildebeest are particular to the Valley and easily spotted here. Antelope, especially impala, puku (rarely seen outside Zambia), bushbuck and waterbuck wander the wideopen plains, and hippos and crocodiles are hard to miss along the river banks. The main predators in the Luangwa Valley are lion, leopard, spotted hyena and wild dog. Of these, lion are probably the most common, and their prides are often seen roaming the park. Leopards, with a density here among the highest in the world, hunt in the thick woodlands. The park’s birdlife is tremendous, including everything from sombre-looking ground hornbills to colourful carmine bee-eaters.
South Luangwa was founded as a game reserve in 1938 but was officially declared a national park in 1972 and now covers 9,050 square kilometres. But it has not all been smooth sailing. The park faces widespread poaching of big game (for ivory and game meat) and there is also the never-ending challenge of snaring, which is not only a direct threat, but also represents a danger to non-target species such as elephants, lions and wild dogs. Tragically, the consumption of bush meat and trafficking in wildlife products is reaching an all-time high.
36
TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
Writer: Sarah Kingdom Photography: Patrick Bentley
Enter Conservation South Luangwa (CSL)…
CSL is a Zambian, non-profit, wildlife protection and rescue organisation whose mission is ‘to work with community and conservation partners in the protection of the wildlife and habitats of the South Luangwa ecosystem’. In an attempt to hold back the current onslaught on wildlife, CSL’s projects include the following...Wildlife rescue and de-snaring: CSL works with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and the Zambian Carnivore Project to mount regular patrols and rescues, working to combat the snares, wildlife’s ‘silent killers’ that are responsible
for the deaths of thousands of animals in the Luangwa Valley annually.
Human/wildlife conflict mitigation: CSL has a large-scale programme centred on the use of chillies as a mitigation measure, to help alleviate the damage experienced by communities living in the areas surrounding the park, when elephants, unable to resist temptation, raid farmers’ crops and fruit trees. Law enforcement support: CSL funds salaries and provides technical support, equipment, rations, training and transport for 65 community-based scouts. In addi-
