Buffaloes Dying of Starvation

by The Zimbabwean.co.uk

About 300 buffalo's are facing starvation in the Zambezi Valley as rising lake waters submerge grazing land, conservationists warned last week.

The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (PWMA) said some 80 buffaloes are trapped on an island opposite Chikwenya camp while more than 200 others are marooned on Nyakasula near Mana Pools. “The animals have young and could not swim back to mainland initially because of the young, but now they are too weak as well,” an official said last week.

The authority has appealed to conservation group and other well-wishers for assistance to feed the animals, some of which have already starved to death.

The PWMA is hoping to get hay taken by boat to the buffaloes before they all die of hunger. The case of the marooned buffaloes comes exactly a month after scores of other animals succumbed to hunger on Starvation Island – also in the Zambezi Valley – after their grazing land was flooded by the rising Kariba Dam.