Rampant Poaching Decimates Kariba Wildlife

The Kariba Animal Welfare Fund said last week that poaching activities threatened to decimate entire herds of buffalo, waterbuck, impala and zebra in the once wildlife-rich national park.

It said a recent operation by a combined tracking team comprising members of the fund and Parks and Wildlife Management Authority rangers recovered at least 40 snares planted by poachers in the Nyanyana section of the national park. Several impala carcasses were also found.

Another sweep retrieved 21 snares in the Quarry area, together with carcasses of a zebra and a buffalo. A KAWF spokesperson said, due to the gravity of the problem, the fund was currently conducting snare sweeps three times a week.

“We sincerely hope these snare sweep updates hit home to our Kariba residents as well as businesses, tour operators, boat owners and visitors to Kariba, that this is not by any means a small problem that will go away. It is a huge poaching problem that is growing daily,” the spokesperson said.

Poaching has become rampant throughout Zimbabwe over the past few years and has been particularly fuelled by the lawlessness spawned by the illegal occupation of conservancies by supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party.

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