Despite the economic stabilization of Zimbabwe and all the promise Africa held for hosting FIFA World Cup in 2010, poaching on the ground in all of Southern Africa is still ongoing, both commercially as well as subsistence poaching of wildlife for meat.  Africa is seeing the largest spike in illegal commercial ivory and rhino horn poaching in years.  With South Africa seeing more than 330 rhino poached in 2010, the peril of wildlife is on the rise. 

Here in Victoria Falls, the number of wildlife from which we removed snares that were for subsistence poaching were only 22 animals in 2009 compared to 52 in 2008.  Nonetheless, commercial poaching overall has increased in the area, both with the amount of Rhino being targeted in nearby Hwange National Park, as well as the number of elephant affected just around Victoria Falls itself.  We are working together with National Parks to contain these commercial poachers in our vicinity.

What did 2010 hold for poaching in the Victoria Falls Region?  By the end of the year we had darted twelve warthogs, seven buffalo, four elephant, three impala, one kudu, one zebra and one lioness for snare removal in Zimbabwe.  One of the warthogs we have darted twice within a three week span, both times it was caught in a wire snare.

Additionally, we assisted the Painted Dog Conservation Project in February when we saw a badly injured Painted Dog (endangered species) at Hwange Main Camp limping.  We darted the animal a few days later and immediately took it to a vet who did an operation to put a pin in the broken leg and remove a massive tumor from the animal’s genitals.  Unfortunately, due to infection the leg had to be amputated shortly thereafter.  However, the dog has recovered well and was released back into the wild with the rest of its pack in the first week of April. 

2011 was also a busy year for darting, although some of the darting was not caused by poaching. We darted three warthog, five buffalo, two impala, one waterbuck and seven elephant. The impala was darted to evaluate its injuries after a vehicle collided with it, and we were not able to save this animal. One of the elephant we darted had a clip from the railway that it had stepped on and which was deeply embedded in its leg. We were able to remove the clip and clean out the wound as well as treat the elephant with anti-biotics. Railways have also sent out a team and recovered any remaining railway clips. In May we also rescued a young elephant calf that had taken up residence with four big male elephant and the town of Victoria Falls was monitoring his health. The young calf sustained substantial injuries to its backside and went completely septic. Despite our best efforts to treat the wound and try and block the infection we were not able to save the young calf. In June we had to euthanize an adult bull elephant in the rural communal lands due to bullet wounds. However, on a positive note we have rescued a juvenile marabou stork that had injured its wing and was unable to fly. The stork has since been released back into the wild.

While it is early days for darting given the thick vegetation, in 2012 we have already immobilized one waterbuck and three warthogs to remove snares. Furthermore, we rescued a sub-adult barn owl with a broken wing that sadly died from its injuries. Currently we have a bushbaby which we are looking after with the hope to release it when it is old enough to be on its own.



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