Over 60 elephants moved to Majete Wildlife Park

In an effort to repopulate Majete Wildlife Park in the Lower Shire district of Chikwawa, a private firm African Parks Safari has transferred to the reserve 62 elephants from Liwonde National Park in Machinga district.

Majete Wildlife Reserve was, at one time, hugely rich in a variety of species of animals and vegetation but it now reeling from shock over the loss of its flora and fauna due to poaching and other human activities.

Gazetted as a Game Reserve in 1955, Majete was estimated to be a home to over 200 elephants but unbelievably by 1992 all had been exterminated.

Patricia Ndamera, a senior official from the African Parks Safari said her organisation started moving the elephants from Liwonde national park in 2003 as a way of restocking Majete Game Reserve.

"The operation is done in conjunction with the department of wildlife and by end of June we had transferred 62 elephants. This year alone, the exercise has cost us about K56 million," she said.

According to Ndamera, her organisation is repopulating the game reserve, located about 70kms southwest of Blantyre, in order to woo more tourists to visit the place.

She said Liwonde National Park, which is one of the country's best tourists' destination, is overpopulated hence the transferring of some elephants to Majete.Ndamera disclosed that Majete, with a 691square km, has a capacity of keeping about 300 elephants but at the moment there are only 142 elephants.

The official also said her organisation will transfer to Majete Wildlife Park about 600 other wild animals such as buffaloes, bush backs, sable antelope, nyala and impala.

An agreement between the African Parks and the Malawi Government was signed in 2003 to take over management of the reserve and restock wildlife with populations of exterminated species acquired from other protected areas in Malawi and, in certain circumstance, from abroad.

So far 769 animals have been moved to Majete from other national parks in Malawi, with a further 77 animals coming from private sources in Zambia.

Animals introduced to the wildlife reserve so far include, among others, black rhino, buffalo, waterbuck, bushbuck, Livingstone's land, Lichtenstein's hartebeest, sable antelope, nyala, Burchell's zebra, impala and warthog.

Apart from the animals, the wildlife reserve is reportedly also very rich in birdlife and about 311 bird species have been recorded in the reserve.