Cecil the lion’s two brothers, Humba and Netsai, are now at risk of being trophy hunted after they were exiled from their pride. Cecil was a beloved African lion who rose to fame in 2015 after he was killed by an American trophy hunter named Walter Palmer. The lion’s brothers, Humba and Netsai, took over […]
Tag: hwange national park
As poachers poison wildlife, Zimbabwe finds an antidote in tougher laws
Nearly a decade ago, poachers used cyanide to slaughter more than 135 elephants for their ivory in and around Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. In the wake of these poisonings, the Southern African country tightened its laws to prevent similar deadly attacks on its wildlife. A new study shows that, even as international demand for ivory […]
Elephants in Southern Africa – Management Issues and Options
Elephant conservation in southern Africa has been remarkably successful over the last century. The region’s elephant populations collapsed in the late 1880s through over-hunting, but their numbers have since increased more than 20-fold; from less than a few thousand to 250,000 – 300,000 today. The overall biomass of elephants in southern Africa is now higher […]
White rhino conservation project attempts paradigm shift by including local community
TSHOLOTSHO, Zimbabwe – Two men crouch beside a pile of rhino dung, using their bare hands to break apart the drying lumps to search for the remnants of the animal’s last meal. “There are some nice thick grasses in here,” says Daniel Terblanche, recording his observations on his phone camera and then sending the video […]
Human-wildlife conflict drives African wild dogs to extinction
The African wild dog has become one of the most critically endangered species in Africa. At one time, nearly 500 000 wild dogs roamed the continent, but now only an estimated 7 000 of them remain. With massively reduced numbers from the encroachment of farming activities, there is lack of genetic variation and a new […]
African countries nix Zimbabwe’s efforts to sell live elephants and its ivory stockpiles
In a much-hyped conference last month to strong-arm the international wildlife trade organisation CITES into allowing the global sale of elephants and ivory, Zimbabwe last week invited 16 African countries and a range of dignitaries to join its cause. However, only five countries signed the conference declaration and the summit failed to come up with […]
Elephant poaching by cyanide poisoning happening again in Zimbabwe
In Lupane on Friday, ZIMPARKS rangers discovered a decaying elephant carcass suspected of having succumbed to cyanide poisoning. Poachers employing the highly lethal toxin may be on the street again, nearly a decade after Zimbabwe lost hundreds of jumbo and other species in a similar method. The tragedy was termed Zimbabwe’s worst ecological disaster in […]
Hunter Kills Beloved Lion, Mopani, Outside the Same Park Where Walter Palmer Gunned Down Cecil
The world all but stopped spinning in July 2015 when news broke that Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist, had gunned down a beloved lion named Cecil after reportedly paying $50,000 to partake in a hunting expedition to Zimbabwe. The killing ignited international outrage, and caring souls took to Twitter and beyond to demand that Palmer’s […]