Wildlife of Zimbabwe
The 12-member Parks and Wildlife Board is responsible for this activity and deciding on policy issues under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management.
Hunting of animals has been prohibited except under special permit issued by the minister for scientific or educational purposes or for captive breeding of falcons, live export, and re-stocking, wildlife management or defence of property.
There are also views of the Pork Pie mountain range and the Bridal Veil Falls, which plunges 50 metres (160 ft) down into a base about 10 m wide.
It has fauna such as eland, sable, bushbuck, blue duiker, klipspringer and also spotted leopard, apart from butterflies, birds, snakes and shy cats.
Though it is one of the largest parks, its location is in the remote Zambezi Escarpment and has extensive vistas of its valleys, gorges, plateaus and flood plains.
Its bird species include the African broadbill, Livingstone's flycatcher, western nicator, emerald cuckoo, Angolan pitta and the Taita falcon.
The park's rivers and pools have some unique species of aqua fauna such as the Zambezi shark, freshwater goby, black bream and the turquoise killifish.
[4][16][17] Conservationists covering this area have also expressed concern at the large "deforestation, poaching and unsustainable resource exploitation" that is occurring in this national park attributed to political and economic instability.
Other species of wildlife seen here are: lion, leopard, giraffe, zebra, gemsbok, roan antelope, sable, tsessebe, eland and reedbuck.
The oribi, a small antelope, an endemic species, is rarely sighted in the depressions where a large variety of water birds such as storks, crowned cranes, stilts, cormorants, ducks and kingfishers are also seen making it an attractive bird-watching site.
[19] The Mana Pools National Park, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site, extending over an area of 2,196 km2 (848 sq mi) (as part of the 10,500 km2 (4,100 sq mi) Parks and Wildlife Estate that stretches the Kariba Dam in the west to the Mozambique border in the east) is in the region of the lower Zambezi River in Zimbabwe where the flood plain turns into a broad expanse of lakes after each rainy season.
In Shona language, Mana means "four" referring to the four large permanent pools formed by the meandering ox-bow lakes of the middle Zambezi River.
The park's habitat consists of islands, sandbanks and pools, flanked by forests of mahogany, wild figs, ebonies and baobabs.
The park has the country's biggest concentration of hippopotamuses and crocodiles as well as large dry season mammal populations of elephant and Cape buffalo.
Bird life consists of 380 species which includes Nyasa lovebird, western nicator, rock pratincole, banded snake-eagle and Livingstone's flycatcher.
Other species include night ape, honey badger, civet, small spotted genet, slender mongoose, banded mongoose, spotted hyena, serval, lion, leopard, yellow-spotted rock hyrax, black rhinoceros, zebra, warthog, common duiker, grysbok, klipspringer, waterbuck, bushbuck, scrub hare, porcupine, vervet monkey, chacma baboon, side-striped jackal, hippopotamus, roan antelope, kudu and bush squirrel, African clawless otter, white-tailed mongoose, reedbuck, sable antelope, eland, civet, rusty spotted genet, caracal and bush pig; sighted on rarely are Cape wild dog, cheetah, roan and pangolin.
Matobo Hills includes a range of domes, spires and balancing rock formations created erosion and weathering within a granite plateau.
It has diverse species of vegetation, including examples of mopane, Acacia, Brachystegia, Ficus, Azanza, Ziziphus, Strychnos and Terminalia.
Along with rhinoceros, the park supports also a large number of animal species, including zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, kudu, eland, sable antelope, klipspringer, leopard, hyena, cheetah, hippo, warthog, rock dassies, waterbuck, African wildcat, springhare, common duiker, crocodiles, baboons and monkeys.
The notable wildlife in the parks consists of elephants, lions, buffalos, leopards and white rhinoceros apart from herds of sable antelope, eland, zebra, giraffe, kudu, waterbuck and impala.
Brachystegia allenii, J. globiflora, C. apiculatum, Terminali stuhlmannii, and Acacia tortlis, Grewia spp., Terminalia prunioides, S. birrea, Commiphora spp., A. nigrescence, A. digitata, and T.
[32] Of the many amphibians and reptiles in Zimbabwe, a few deserve mention due to their status on the IUCN Red List:[32] The kurper bream is considered critically endangered.
[33] Tourist companies tout catching tigerfish and bream in Mana Pools National Park, and vundu and chessa in the Zambezi.
