![]() As a result, Gorongosa has attracted the attention of naturalists around the world, eager to track the recovery of a complex ecosystem in what is in effect a living laboratory at the southern end of Africa’s Great Rift Valley. In a watershed experiment, they are taking a hands-on approach to rebuilding the park’s fauna, first by reintroducing herbivores such as elephant, zebra and wildebeest and, more recently, working to re-establish healthy populations of carnivores such as lions and wild dogs.īecause carnivores cover large areas in search of food and mates (and easilywander into areas inhabited by humans), only a few reintroductions had previously been attempted anywhere. Since then, the Mozambican government has teamed up with a US tech entrepreneur and an international team of scientists to restore the park’s ecosystem, from the bottom of the food chain to the top. As rebel groups took refuge in the park, hundreds of lions, leopards and wild dogs fled, starved or died in snares used to catch bushmeat. The male cubs keep a respectful distance, patiently waiting their turn.Ĭarnivores are finally making a comeback in Gorongosa, more than two decades after a 16-year civil war brutally decimated their numbers. Barely ten metres ahead, a collared lioness called Rosa lies in the tall grass, gnawing at the bones of her breakfast and lazily rolling bloody sinew and gristle around in her huge jaws. He plunges the vehicle down a slope, dodging branches before bringing the vehicle to a halt. All at once, the trees are alive with sound. She will then work her way up from the fleshy hindquarters towards the head, in a process that can take several hours.įrom a nearby tree, a baboon lets out a guttural howl to warn others of nearby predators, triggering a hornbill to follow suit. Once lions have subdued their prey, the matriarch will open the abdomen and start her meal with the internal organs – the most nutritious part. The time is 6.45am, but Caringuene is convinced the lions are still in the area. Lions rarely enter the staff area at the camp, but these ambush predators must have had an instinct that their next meal was snoozing within easy reach, laid out like a buffet under the house. He is on the right track: at 4am, the cries of the unfortunate hog had broken the silence over Chitengo Camp and startled Caringuene from his sleep: a lioness with two cubs in tow had snatched the warthog from right beneath his bedroom. ![]() Baboons survey the vehicle curiously as field guide Samuel Mitha Caringuene pulls up alongside a severed warthog leg lying in the dry grass. The 4x4 shudders through the bush in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, where uneven terrain tests the sturdiest of suspensions. ![]()
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