Hwange National Park, which was previously known as Wankie Game Reserve, is the largest natural reserve in Zimbabwe. It covers an area of about 14,600 square kilometers (5,600 square miles). The park is located in the northwest part of the country, near the main road that connects Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. The closest town to the park is Dete.

History

Hwange National Park was established in 1928. It is being considered for inclusion in a conservation area that includes five countries.

In 2011, poachers killed nine elephants, five lions, and two buffaloes.

In October 2013, it was found that poachers used cyanide to poison a waterhole, killing many African elephants. Experts say this was the biggest illegal killing of animals in Southern Africa in 25 years. Two surveys from the air were done to find out how many animals died. The first survey found 19 dead animals, and the second survey found 84 more. Three of the poachers were caught, arrested, tried, and sentenced to prison. Now, all illegal hunting of royal game and elephants must result in a 9-year prison sentence, and the people who supply tools for poaching are also targeted.

On or around July 1, 2015, Cecil, a lion who had lived in Hwange National Park for 13 years, was killed. This event caused a lot of attention on social media and a petition asking Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, to stop issuing permits for big game hunting. Walter Palmer, the person who admitted to killing Cecil, had a legal permit and was not charged with any crime because all his documents were correct. Zimbabwe’s authorities said he is allowed to visit the country. At first, charges were filed against Theo Bronkhorst, Palmer’s guide, for failing to stop an illegal hunt, but these charges were later dismissed by the court.

Two years after Cecil’s death, his son, Xanda, was also killed. Unlike his father’s case, Xanda’s killing was not considered illegal, but it still caused anger among people.

Biodiversity

The park is located near the edge of the Kalahari desert, a place with very little water and few plants that can survive in dry conditions. The Kalahari woodland is mainly made up of Zambezi Teak, Sand Camwood (Baphia), and Kalahari bauhinia. Seasonal wetlands create grasslands in this area.

The northern and northwestern parts of the park are covered by mopane woodland.

Although some people believe that elephants change the structure of plants, recent studies suggest this may not be true, even though elephant numbers increased greatly in the late 1980s.

The park is home to more than 100 types of mammals and 400 types of birds, including 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores. All of Zimbabwe’s specially protected animals can be found in Hwange, and it is the only protected area where gemsbok and brown hyena live in small numbers.

Grazing herbivores are more common in the Main Camp Wild Area and Linkwasha Concession Area, while mixed feeders are more common in the Robins and Sinamatella Wild Areas, which have more trees. The distribution of animals changes with the seasons, with large herbivores gathering in areas where water is pumped during dry times.

The population of Cape wild dogs in Hwange is believed to be one of the largest remaining groups in Africa, along with those in Kruger National Park and Selous Game Reserve.

Other major predators include lions, whose movements and hunting in Hwange are closely tied to pans and waterholes. Since 2005, the area has been recognized as a Lion Conservation Unit together with the Okavango Delta.

African leopards, spotted hyenas, and cheetahs are also found in the protected area.

Elephants have thrived in Hwange, and their numbers have grown far beyond what the area naturally supports. This has placed significant pressure on the park’s resources. There has been much debate about how to manage this, with park authorities using culling to reduce numbers, especially between 1967 and 1986. The elephant population doubled in the five years after culling ended in 1986.

National Parks Scientific Services manages two major conservation and research projects in the park:

• The National Leopard Project is studying leopard numbers to compare their status in hunting areas and nearby lands. This project works with the Wildlife Conservation and Research Unit of Oxford University and the Dete Animal Rescue Trust.
• The Painted Dog Project aims to protect and increase the range and numbers of African wild dogs in Zimbabwe and across Africa. It is run by the Painted Dog Conservation organization in Dete.

This list shows some of the many bird species found in the park, but it is not complete.

Most of the park is built on Kalahari Sands. In the northwest, there are basalt lava flows from the Batoka Formation, stretching from south of Bumbusi to the Botswana border. In the north-central area, from Sinamatella going east, there are granites and gneisses from the Kamativi-Dete Inlier, with smaller pieces of these rocks found within the basalt in the northwest.

The northern and northwestern parts of the park are drained by the Deka and Lukosi rivers and their tributaries, while the far south is drained by the Gwabadzabuya River, a tributary of the Nata River. There are no rivers in most of the park, but fossil drainage channels in the Main Camp and Linkwasha areas form seasonal wetlands. In these areas without rivers, grassy pan depressions and pans have formed. Some pans, like those in the Shumba area, fill with rainwater, while others, such as Ngweshla, Shakwanki, and Nehimba, are fed by natural groundwater. Many pans also receive water pumped from underground by park authorities.

People have lived in the region for tens of thousands of years, as shown by many archaeological sites from the early Stone Age to the historic era. Stone Age foragers hunted and gathered, leaving behind stone tools across the park. They also made engravings of animal hoofprints on sandstone rockshelter walls and painted small images in the northwest. Iron Age people built stone-walling sites, such as Mtoa and the Bumbusi National Monument.