Elephants and other buffalo from Zimbabwe’s largest national park have been migrating en masse to neighboring Botswana for several weeks due to a lack of water, the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority learned on Monday. from Zimbabwe.
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“Many animals are leaving Hwange National Park for neighboring Botswana,” Zimparks spokeswoman Tinashe Farawo told AFP on Monday.
Hwange Park (West), with an area of around 14,600 km2, is home to around 50,000 pachyderms.
The migration of wildlife from Hwange to Botswana is not an unusual phenomenon, but this year stands out for its precocity, the spokesman said. Due to a lack of rainfall, natural water bodies are now dry earlier in the year than usual.
“I cannot say the exact number of elephants that have moved, it may be hundreds or thousands, but in any case it is many,” lamented Mr. Farawo, who stated that this forced migration began in August.
“The animals are looking for water and food and it is not just elephants and buffaloes but all kinds of animals that are found in the park,” he added.
“The number of migratory animals has increased significantly in recent years due to increasing water scarcity,” he said.
According to him, this massive movement of wildlife risks creating new confrontations with humans: “More animals will invade communities and people will compete with them for water.”
Since last year, several clashes between elephants or buffaloes and residents of villages near Hwange Park have been recorded. According to government figures, at least 60 people were killed by elephants last year and the number is rising.
Conservationists say Zimbabwe has about 100,000 elephants, almost twice the capacity of its parks. With 130,000 specimens, Botswana is the country with the most specimens in the world.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has classified southern Africa as a region at risk for extreme heat and reduced rainfall due to global warming.