Hwange National Park

Hwange National Park

Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe's biggest nature reserve, covering an area of about 14 600 square kilometers. Located in the north-west of the country, along the main road between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. The national park is remembered for the incident on 1 July 2015 when Cecil the lion, who had lived for 13 years in Hwange National Park, was killed. This incident triggered widespread social media attention and a petition calling on President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to ban big game hunting permits. Cecil's killer had a permit and was not charged with any crime as all his papers were in order. The park is home to more than 100 species of mammals and 400 species of birds, among them 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores. All protected species in Zimbabwe are found in Hwange, and it is the sole protected area where South African Oryx and Brown Hyena are found in limited numbers. The Cape Wild Dog population in Hwange is one of the largest in Africa today, along with the populations of Kruger National Park and Selous Game Reserve. The protected area, together with the Okavango Delta, has been a Lion Conservation Unit since 2005. In addition to lions, the area also hosts African Leopard, Spotted Hyena and cheetah. The park is home to a huge number of elephants, far in excess of what an area like this could naturally accommodate. This has put a strain on park resources and there has been much debate about how to deal with this situation, with park authorities carrying out culls to reduce the population, particularly between 1967 and 1986. Then, within 5 years, the elephant population doubled.