Malawi: Zebra and waterbuck are being reintroduced to Kasungu National Park!

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in conjunction with Malawi's Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) has begun translocating zebra and waterbuck from Kuti Wildlife Reserve in Salima in central Malawi to Kasungu National Park in western Malawi. The first seven zebra (four mares and three stallions) arrived at the National Park on 08 July 2020. 
The reintroduction of zebra will bolster the population in Kasungu National Park to 21 animals, while the waterbuck will make up a founder breeding herd. These, together with the elephant population which has grown to more than 100 from the last 50 remaining in 2015, is bringing life back to Kasungu National Park's empty spaces. Leopard, wild dog, and lion have also been sighted back in the National Park after a long absence.

Kasungu National Park is Malawi's second largest National Park (240,000²-hectare). It is located west of Kasungu, about 175 km north of Lilongwe, extending along Malawi's border with Zambia. The National Park used to be home to over 1,000 elephants, herds of waterbuck, at least 500 zebra and quantities of buffalo and many other species. Decades of severe poaching and encroachment into the National Park decimated the once majestic herds to virtual local extinction. In early 2016, IFAW and DNPW started working together on an ambitious project to bring Kasungu National Park back from the brink. IFAW began to rebuild the infrastructure, train an effective and efficient wildlife ranger force and end rampant poaching of wildlife in the National Park. Through this partnership and great transformation, the Kasungu National Park is now a safe space for wildlife.

Namibia/Botswana: The longest terrestrial large mammal migration in Africa

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), researchers have discovered the longest-known terrestrial migration of wildlife in Africa. They observed a previously unknown multi-country migration of Burchell’s zebra (Equus quagga) taking place entirely within the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) – the world’s largest multi-country conservation area. Over two consecutive years the researchers tracked the movement of zebras back and forth by using GPS collars. The data show that the mammals are making a 500km round-trip between the Chobe River in Namibia and the Nxai Pan National Park in Botswana. Continued long-term research will be needed to confirm that this is an annual and fixed migration, and whether this is genetically coded or passed behaviorally from mothers to offspring. The distance covered by the Burchell’s zebra in the KAZA is greater than that covered by wildebeest (connochaetes taurinus) during their well-known seasonal journey in the Serengeti ecosystem, which is located in north Tanzania and south-western Kenya.

Did you know... that no two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike

A zebra has typically vertical stripes on the head, neck, forequarters, and main body, and horizontal stripes at the rear and on the legs of the animal. With each striping pattern unique to each individual, zebras can, according to some researchers, recognize one another by their stripes.

While some experts believe that the stripes are mainly for identification, others believe that the stripes may have different functions:

• The zebra's main predator, the lion, is color blind. Theoretically, a zebra, camouflaged in tall grass through the vertical striping when standing still, may therefore not be noticed at all by a lion.
• Zebras are herd animals and so the stripes may help to confuse predators. A number of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large animal, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out any single zebra to attack.
• The zebra's disruptive colouration may also be an effective way of confusing the visual system of the blood-sucking tsetse fly.
• the stripes coincide with fat patterning beneath the skin, serving as a thermoregulatory mechanism for the zebra

btw - zebras are black animals with white stripes!

Video: Hippo rescues wildebeest and zebra foals (Mara River, Tanzania)

This might be the first ever recorded rescue of a baby wildebeest and a baby zebra by the same hippo on the Mara River (Serengeti NP) in Tanzania. Both foals were rescued within 10 min as they were trying to cross the raging river.



The hippo was watching as the wildebeest herd swam past. As soon as the calf jumped in, the hippo swam up to it and pushed it along all the way across until it had reached safety on the other side. It then went back and did the same for a zebra foal just minutes later.

more info about the Lemala Camps in Tanzania >>