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Kafue Flats and Kafue Lechwe
By a Correspondent
It is a land of
signs; of lechwe spoor and zebra tracks, of numerous animal
activities. Here wattled cranes step gracefully on slender legs, in
shallow water. In the water channels hippos warn you in deep honking
voices that the river is theirs, you best stay away. There are
sitatunga, an antelope that escapes predators by submerging itself
up to its nostrils in water. One sheaf of grass amid thousands is
enough information for our local guide and scout, Peter. “Here is
the road” he says, and we turn north-west. That is the Kafue Flats,
a vast land of deep blue water, lush green grass and wildlife.
Second largest wetland in Zambia.
We had left
Lusaka early on Sunday; we had come to Blue Lagoon to make
acquaintance with its wildlife. It had been a while since we had
visited. We arrived to a warm greeting from the Ranger in Charge of
the Park, who handed us over to Peter. Driving along he excitedly
muttered “There, look : lechwe” pointing to where some lechwe were
gathered. Two large Spur-winged Geese wheeled in at the waters edge,
joining others of their species, along with their smaller cousins,
the Egyptian Geese. This feathered gathering was not just geese but
ibis’s, herons, spoonbills, plovers, storks and wattled cranes.
Strolling gracefully among them were male lechwe, the horned lords
of the Kafue Flats. These are a unique sub-species confined to the
Kafue flats; they belong to a tribe of antelope that includes
waterbuck, kob, puku and reedbuck.
 We
passed numerous lechwe, thrilled by the numbers, large bodied males
turned to watch us. Our twilight ruminations were shattered when we
came across the work of man on the areas wildlife. Bleached and sun
dried carcasses of lechwe and zebra, littered here and there, with
lopsided grimaces, shot and wounded, they were left to die. Some
were only a few days old, others weeks old and still more skeletons
were obviously on their way to being fossilesed. Peter shared his
experiences on some of his anti-poaching patrols, on the numerous
islands over this vast wetland, where his team, had arrested gangs
of poachers, Some he said had slain 30 lechwe in a week’s hunting.
He spoke of destroying and burning drying meat racks, so many that
the smoke from this bon fire could be seen from a distance days
after they had set fire to them.
Chris began to
get really up tight at the carnage; the carcasses we found had
evidence of extremely poor marksmanship. Broken and shattered front
and back limbs, shot off upper and bottom jaws. I wondered whether
the hunters were inexperienced or some did it out of crude sport,
the heart of man is capable of such depravity.
We came across
over 10 lechwe carcasses that had been shot in the not too distant
past, high velocity bullets with bone breaking pounding power had
been used on many of the animals. They were simply shot and not
followed up; among them young males, abounded; no doubt owing to
their small size and not much meat on them, they were left. A number
were probably victims of stray bullets or were shot at random (for
target practice maybe?) All but three or four carcasses had been
picked clean by vultures. Even as we turned some over we found other
little invertebrates at work demolishing whatever was left of the
carcasses. Where skin clung to the dried bones, I could just make
out the cutting work of the large lappet-faced vulture which Peter
clearly pointed out, where it had ripped into the carcasses.
Marabou storks,
the title holders of the world’s ugliest bird, stood with hunched
shoulders, looking elderly in black coats and white shirts, few grey
hairs on their bald heads. They are nearly as tall as men and have
formidable beaks. They stood around carcasses that still had meat on
them but lacked the tearing hooked beak of the lappet faced vulture.
A herd of
lechwe strolled by, not too far from us, oblivious to the remains of
their dead brethren, carried on grazing, ignoring us. Depending upon
which herd you come across some are docile, others jittery and
skittish, a sign of hunting pressure. It is hard to imagine the
total number of carcasses that were scattered over that small area
and how many more had gone undetected. The hunting pressure, both
legal and illegal, on the species is truly high.
Historical
records show that lechwe figures were in excess of 100,000; today
however, the numbers are declining. Kafue Flats’ proximity to Lusaka
is actually its dilemma. With Lusaka’s high demand for meat and
fish, the results are obvious. High incidences of illegal hunting
and over-fishing; over shooting on licences; the regulations laid
down are not adhered to.
The Zambia
Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) manages Blue Lagoon and Kafue Flats in as
far as the wildlife is concerned. However it seems it is unable to
either control or supervise all the hunting parties; it has its
hands full with a burgeoning poaching problem. Hunting takes place
in the Kafue Flats Game Management Area, however we did find
carcasses in the Park. The question is did the lechwe drag
themselves to die in the Park or where they shot in the park? Peter
assured us that carcasses found in the Park were the work of
poachers not licenced hunters. Fair enough.
Blue Lagoon is
a Ramsar site, an area of global ecological importance. What is
happening on Kafue Flats needs to be halted and redressed. Unless
the hunting is controlled, the lechwe could go the way of the black
rhino. Some one will say 40,000 is a lot of lechwe, not if they are
being killed at the rate they are every day. The impact on the
population of lechwe must be considerable. Not only that, it is
embarrassing when one compares numbers then to what it is
today. Whatever will become of the area, be it negative or positive,
will affect us all for generations to come.
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February
2007