Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park is a protected area in Zambia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It contains half of the Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means "The Smoke that Thunders" in the Kololo or Lozi language. This name is now used in Zambia and parts of Zimbabwe. The falls, known worldwide as Victoria Falls, are located on the Zambezi River, which forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The park is paired with the Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe.
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park spans 66 kilometers (25 square miles) in a northwest arc along the Zambian side of the river. It is located along the southern edge of the city of Livingstone and has two main areas. One section is a wildlife park in the northwest, and the other is the land near the Victoria Falls. During the rainy season, the falls create the world’s largest waterfall curtain. The park extends downstream from the falls and continues southeast along the Batoka Gorges.
The wildlife section of the park
The wildlife park has tall forests near rivers with palm trees, miombo woodland, and grasslands filled with many birds and animals such as Angolan giraffes, Burchell's zebras, warthogs, sable antelope, African buffalo, impalas, and other antelope. The number of animals has decreased during droughts since 2000.
The park now has ten southern white rhinos, including young calves. These rhinos are not originally from Zambia; they were brought from South Africa. The black rhino, which was once found in Zambia, is no longer living there, though a project is trying to bring them back to North Luangwa National Park. The first rhinos brought to the park were two animals, but both were killed by poachers on June 6, 2007. One rhino was shot near the park gate, and its horn was taken. The other rhino was seriously injured but survived and now lives in the park with constant protection. By 2009, the number of rhinos increased to five, with plans to add more later. As of 2022, there are 10 white rhinos in the park.
African elephants are often seen in the park when they cross the river during the dry season from Zimbabwe. Hippopotamuses and crocodiles can be seen from the riverbank. Vervet monkeys and baboons are common in the park, as they are in other parts of the national park outside the wildlife area. Since January 2009, a company called Lion Encounter has offered a "walking with lions" experience in the park. Plans are also in place to start a lion breeding program in the soon-to-be-expanded Dambwa Forest section of the park.
Inside the wildlife park is the Old Drift Cemetery, where the first European settlers were buried. These settlers built a camp near the river but kept dying from a mysterious illness. They blamed the yellow-and-green-barked "fever trees" for their deaths, but the real cause was mosquitoes that spread malaria. Soon, the settlers moved to higher ground, and the town of Livingstone was established.
The falls section of the park
The falls section of the national park includes a rainforest on the cliff across from the Eastern Cataract. This rainforest is kept alive by water spray from the falls. It has plants not commonly found in the area, such as pod mahogany, ebony, ivory palm, wild date palm, and several types of creepers and lianas. Small antelopes and warthogs live in this area and may also be seen on the paths through the riverine forest that lead to the falls.
In November 2005, a new statue of explorer David Livingstone was built in the park. The original and more famous Livingstone statue is located on the Zimbabwean side. A plaque was also placed on Livingstone Island to mark the spot where Livingstone first saw the falls as a European.
The Knife-Edge Bridge was built in the 1960s to allow people to walk to the cliffs overlooking Rainbow Falls and the exit of the First Gorge to the Boiling Pot in the Second Gorge. A steep path also leads down to the Boiling Pot, offering views of the Second Gorge and the Victoria Falls Bridge.
Near the river before it flows over Victoria Falls, there is a small, undeveloped part of the park. This is the only riverfront area that can be reached without paying a fee. It is an important place for elephants to cross the river.
The tops of the deep gorges below the falls can be reached by road and walking paths through the park. These areas are great places to spot klipspringers, clawless otters, and 35 types of birds of prey, such as the Taita falcon, Verreaux’s eagle, peregrine falcon, and augur buzzard. All of these birds breed in this region.
Regional context
This park is being considered to join the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, which spans across five countries.