A vision come to pass

In the dark of the African night, with the sounds of the vibrant bush calling across the open savannah, two eyes reflect, white in the light of a baited camera trap. A large shaggy head looms into view as two more white shining eyes, appear glinting just behind. A pair of male lions are making their presence known in the remote wilderness of Mozambique’s Zinave National Park.   

Zinave is a unique park, covered by Acacia communities, and dry Terminalia woodland in a beautiful landscape that is crowned by massive baobab trees. This park has a very high carrying capacity for wildlife. And yet, for a while it was known as the silent park. It was a place devoid of wildlife, where the ungrazed long grasses undulated quietly in the wind.  

Initially declared a hunting concession in 1962, Zinave was upgraded to a national park just ten years later. Herds of browsing plains game enjoyed a brief respite before the country entered a time of intense internal conflict, which decimated wildlife populations across all the wildernesses in the landscape. Most of the large mammal species, including the giraffe were lost to Zinave and with them went the predators, and an entire biodiverse ecosystem entered a time of stasis.    

Even as Mozambique emerged from almost two decades of discord, it took more than twenty years for Zinave to begin to stir. On 22 September 2015, the Mozambican Ministry of Land, Environmental and Rural Development, and Peace Parks Foundation, signed a co-management agreement whereby the Mozambican National Agency for Conservation Areas (ANAC) and Peace Parks would develop Zinave National Park over the following five years. Zinave was set to be developed as an integral component of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, the larger area surrounding the core transfrontier national parks of Kruger in South Africa, Limpopo in Mozambique and Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe.  

There was a great deal of work to be done. Fences were erected, infrastructure upgraded, accommodation for staff and rangers built, vehicles purchased, extra staff and field rangers were employed and trained. An extensive livelihood improvement strategy for the surrounding communities was implemented and community liaison officers were appointed to oversee the development of the conservancies between the three national parks.   

A sanctuary was erected within the 4091 km2 park as a secure zone where translocated wildlife could safely land while an advanced anti-poaching unit was developed. Following the first translocation of seven elephant from Maremani Nature Reserve in South Africa to Zinave in October 2016, giraffe, sable, impala, reedbuck, waterbuck, and buffalo, were added to the plains from conservation areas in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa.  

In 2020, a 20-year co-management agreement was signed between ANAC and Peace Parks and by mid 2020, Zinave’s herbivore population was faring so well that a study done by the Endangered Wildlife Trust recommended the reintroduction of the lost carnivore guild to the park. The first of these was a clan of four spotted hyena that came from Sabie Game Park in Mozambique, thus establishing a founder population of large carnivores, the first to be seen in the park for decades.   

The ecological impact of spotted hyena entering Zinave’s system was significant as the species is both a predator, taking off weaker animals from herds, which keeps the gene pool strong, as well as a scavenger that cleans up the landscape, ensuring systems remain disease-free. Another significant advantage was that they also attracted smaller scavengers and vultures, the first signs of natural rewilding, that came in to feed on the carcasses exposed by the hyena.  

Further rewilding happened without human intervention, as the presence of lions began to be felt in the park with the first cat captured on a camera trap in the sanctuary in early September 2021, indicating that predators were being naturally drawn to the area’s prosperous ecosystem. Steadily over the past few years, more and more lions have made their own way into Zinave using ecological linkages between protected areas, instinctively attracted by a plentiful food supply and the safety offered by the sanctuary.  

Camera traps catch the wildlife in Zinave.

Thanks to invaluable support from donors, a total of 2 540 animals have been rewilded to Zinave so far including two leopards and thirty-seven rhino. As reported in the latest aerial wildlife count, these numbers have seen a healthy increase, with a 20% growth every year in most of the common species. The natural return of lions to this area is a testament to the success of the rewilding efforts .

Today, Zinave is a vital component of a wildlife corridor within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that sees animals migrate all the way from Kruger National Park in South Africa through and to Limpopo, Banhine and Zinave National Parks in Mozambique. 

Ideally situated close to one of Mozambique’s tourism development nodes, the Vilanculos-Bazaruto Archipelago, Zinave, now loud with the roars of the ultimate apex predator, and Mozambique’s first big five national park is primed and ready for the next step, which is to welcome tourists.  

Read more about Zinave National Park here