In this episode we visit the Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The visit to Hwange was emotionally complex. On the one hand we had amazing sightings and experiences, but on the other hand we came facto face with the realities of local elephant overpopulation, where elephants have devastated the environment to such and extent that for kilometres on end there were no trees higher than a shrub.
By the end of the dry season the park could simply not sustain the number of elephants and they were dying. Other wildlife is also impacted. Because elephants tend to monopolise waterholes other animals are often forced to use muddy areas where they get stuck - as we witnessed. One cannot help but wonder whether culling of elephants should not be reintroduced as a more humane option to manage their numbers and avert a disaster.
Highlights of the trip was seeing new-born elephant calves, lions virtually every day and lots of antelope like Sable and Roan that are relatively scarce in South Africa.
As usual we also discuss the campsites we used.

Credits

Africa map image by VEmaps.com
Road maps from Tracks4Africa website
Globe image and satellite photos from Google Earth Pro

Music

Only Memories Remain by Hayden Folker |   / hayden-folker  
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Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)
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Calendar by Vlad Gluschenko |   / vgl9  
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