Mana Pools Predator Survey

MANA POOLS PREDATOR SURVEY 2015

If you are interested in reading the results of the WILDCRU-funded Survey of the Predators of Mana Pools National Park that took place last year, including a list of everything seen and some amazing images captured by camera trap, you can read the report on the Publications Page of the Zambezi Society’s website at this link: Mana Pools Predator Survey Report.  A similar research project is currently being undertaken in the Matusadona National Park.

CAPTURES OF INTEREST The capture of images of Brown hyena in two camera traps in the foothills of the escarpment and Blackbacked Jackal images in the central areas of the national park are of considerable interest. This is further proof of the spreading of these two species into the Lower Zambezi Valley, an area from which they have historically been absent.

Brown hyena

Black backed Jackal 

Extract from the Mana Pools Predator Survey – Camera Trap Survey

A total of 30,319 data images were captured during the whole survey. The breakdown of the number of images and number of identified individuals for the large predators is as follows: – Table 1: The total number of images capture for the main five large carnivore species and the number of individuals identified from camera trap images

During the survey five cameras were bitten by hyena, five damaged to varying degrees by elephant, two destroyed by a bushfire, two removed by elephant and not found and one assumed to have been removed by poachers.