Elephant research in Chizarira, Zimbabwe

The elephant research initiated by ALERT with Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management as a partner is the first elephant collared in the Sebungwe region this century. The elephant cow named “Nyasha” is part of a herd of 30 animals and the data being collected on her movements, core areas and feeding preferences are tied in with the objectives of the Zimbabwe Elephant Management Plan 2015-2021.

Nyasha has been actively tracked via VHF and GPS over the past two months. The research on this herd has already yielded interesting preliminary data such as home ranges, population dynamics and habitat use, but much more data is needed before the status and condition of the elephant population is known. As can be seen, by the map, Nyasha is utilizing the mid-northern part of the park. With more collars, we will be able to obtain meaningful data of the elephant populations within the whole Park and will be in a position to advise the Parks Authority on conservation measures.

This herd of elephants has not gone out of the Park into the surrounding communal lands to date. Part of the research is to establish the occurrence of any Human elephant conflict incidences outside of the Protected Area and to define traditional elephant migratory corridors

Due to a lower than expected level of funding the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust has not been able to provide any supplies for this project.

We hope to improve the success of our fundraising efforts in order to help the elephant of Chizarira National Park, we hope you will help us along the way. We will be pushing this project on social media over the next few months, in an attempt to bring the campaign to the attention of new donors who want to help conserve the National Parks elephant.

ALERT is aiming to considerably increase the amount of funds raised for this project. As we see the conservation of the reedbuck in Chizarira National Park as a worthwhile project, ALERT has attempted to collar elephants at Chizarira already however the attempts were unsuccessful, but the project must go on.