Slaughter at Kazuma Pans
Source: SafariTalk
Date: 2 March 2008
Author: Sara Webster
A family holiday should not encompass the sights that we saw in Zimbabwe this last December. We decided to go north-west of Hwange National Park to Kazuma Pans after bitter disappointment in Hwange’s poorly maintained campsites with no electricity or running water, the relative exorbitant park fees, rangers openly drying game meat even in the public toilets and seeing nothing more than a few very skittish animals fleeing from the sounds of our vehicles. Sometimes the animals fled so fast that we were uncertain as to what it was we had seen “Was that a cheetah or a baboon?” one of the kids would ask. No one was certain.
One of the Hwange Wardens, however, tried to discourage us saying “You’ll never make it, the road is treacherous, I got stuck 7 times on that road only yesterday….. anyway, there are no animals there, go up to Zambezi National Park, it’s better”. According to an old brochure, it states that “Kazuma Pans is a 30 000 hectare sanctuary for animals outside of the private hunting concessions” and so we thought it would offer more than what we had seen thus far and decided to go regardless of his warning.
Well the road to Kazuma fell short of his description. We wondered what the Warden was trying to do – chase us out of the area or cover something up.
Kazuma Pans is like no other park we’ve visited in Africa with massive expansive pans filled with newly sprouted bright green grasses with patches of water and the occasional palm tree. One can see for a kilometre or two across the pans and it is a birders paradise with various storks, ducks and birds of prey including Crested Eagles. Yet at night, it is eerily silent with no animal sounds at all, except for the rain frogs. No people and strangely no animals. We felt like the last people on earth.
We decided to drive across the pans to other side on a morning game drive. The only significant sighting was a herd of some 400 buffalo grazing on the pan but as we approached they took fright and they heavily galloped off with their little tails curled up.
We came across an elephant skull and skeleton that had been blanched white in the scorching sun. The magnitude of the skull, the length of a rib and size of the femur bones was astounding and something none of us, especially the children, had ever seen close up before. Maybe this sighting was rather unusual. Don’t elephants cover up their dead?
We continued down the road, but within a short period you could smell the sweet stench of a carcass. Another elephant. This time it was more recent with most of the skin still intact, but again no tusks. The positioning of the twisted body looked peculiar with its head wrenched away from its body, its mouth gaping open as if calling out in pain.
It was horrific and the children became quiet as the adults looked knowingly at each other. This elephant did not die naturally. For then we saw the bullet hole in this once majestic giant.
It was time to move on. As we turned the next corner, we all gasped as before us is a scene from “The Killing Fields”. In this green field of bush with young sprouting Mopani trees were twenty plus elephant carcasses and bones scattered everywhere.
Lots of bones. Carcasses with beautiful yellow butterflies sitting on them. Added to the sweet decaying smell was an oily odour.
The bones are blackened as if they have been burnt with diesel. Perhaps it is to discourage scavengers or else to hide the evidence. That distinct smell haunted us all for days after. Just how many dead elephants were there in this field? Who did this? The children stayed in the cars looking forlorn with tears falling and only a few of us had the courage to walk through the field.
I had mistakenly taken a tail for an infant’s trunk. Where were the babies as there was no evidence of them? What had happened here? Were only the adult elephants taken out and the remainder of the herd fled? Who did this? Who would allow this to happen?
This killing field is no more than a few hundred metres from Kazuma Hunting Lodge. Kazuma Hunting Lodge? But there is not supposed to be any hunting in Kazuma. Well that’s changed. The Lodge was unoccupied as the hunting season is over for the year. In the middle of the lodge is a thatched structure incorporating the reception, lounge and bar with two elephant skulls at the entrance.
Behind the bar, we found the visitors book. The vast majority are Americans boosting of their successes:
“Shot the big four in 10 days”
“An 80 pounder on the first day”
“We came to the place of the elephants. Secured a 65 pounder, 43” sable and a 7’ 6” leopard was the icing on the cake. Hope to be back soon”.
“Meals prepared from our game were superb… We wish we could bring all our new friends home with us. I guess we will have to be happy with Jim’s leopard, eland, kudu, sable, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, hyena and baboon”.
The last recorded hunt was in August 2007 with three hunters from Utah, Minneapolis and San Diego.
I feel deeply saddened at the trophy hunters’ brazen bragging and their evident lack of understanding, but it was this entry that turned my sadness to rage:
“169 elephants in 8 days. Nowhere comes close”.
Not a wonder then that we did not see any game and the few buffalos ran away.
It appears that the Zimbabwe Government has sanctioned these activities for financial gain from the American trophy hunters’ fees as they plunder the last remaining game from Zimbabwe’s national parks.
Zimbabwe has long had game watchers and game hunters together in the same vicinity. However, the game hunters have now claimed this land and game watchers are no longer welcome. This is not “the place of the elephants” for we never saw a single live elephant. It is an elephant graveyard. We won’t be back soon.
I guess the game is over.
Response from Barry Style:
It was disturbing to read Sara Webster's article, “The Elephant Killing Fields of Zimbabwe” in a recent issue of The Farmers Weekly . What Mr and Mrs Webster and their children came across would seem to portray a picture of the large scale slaughter of elephants in one of Zimbabwe's game reserves, namely, Kazuma Pan National Park in the extreme northwest of the country. The scenes described suggest what many people are apt to think, that Zimbabwe is a pariah state that has no feeling for its national heritage. It is understandable that these views are held, given that no good news stories seem to come out of Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, however, Mrs Webster and her family did not enter the area in full possession of the facts. Naturally, furthermore, they would have been spared from their ordeal had the section of the park they drove into been signposted to indicate that they had entered an authorised hunting area and that the majority of the elephant remains they came across are those of legally hunted animals. Regrettably, they had to endure the sight of a considerable number of elephant carcasses out of context. Their conclusions are understandable, but the subsequent article, although well written, is damaging in its lack of research.
We hope it is some consolation to the Websters and to your readership to learn the following facts:
1. Kazuma Pan National Park is bordered by Botswana in the west, the Matetsi Safari Area in the east, Pandamasuie Forest in the north and Kazuma Forest in the south. Pandamasuie and Kazuma are Forestry Commission estates and both are controlled hunting areas. A sustainable hunting quota is allocated by the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority each year. The combined annual quota for trophy elephant bulls in Kazuma and Pandamasuie Forests since 2000 has been seven. Ngamo Safaris, a registered hunting and photographic company, has been running all safari operations in Kazuma Forest for over 25 years. Forestry Commission game scouts accompany each hunting party to monitor the trophies harvested in the area and to ensure that the stringent regulations pertaining to ethical hunting on Commission land are adhered to. The Kazuma Forest hunting camp is situated in close proximity to the southern border of Kazuma Pan National Park.
2. Often the skulls of trophy elephant that are harvested by safari hunters are carried back to the camp where the ivory is removed by experienced skinners. Once this operation is complete, the skulls are taken to a spot relatively near the camp and placed in the bush.
3. Descriptions given by Mrs Webster in her article would suggest that she and her family inadvertently travelled into the Kazuma Forest hunting area during their visit to Kazuma Pan National Park. This is easily possible as a certain section of the road on the southern boundary of the Park has not been well maintained and is overgrown with grass. There is, however, a well used graded road which branches inland into the Kazuma Forest hunting area. It would need to be confirmed, but it would seem likely that the family took this road and ended up driving passed the area where the skulls of trophy hunted elephant are scattered (what Mrs Webster described as a “Killing Field”), which is only a couple of hundred metres from the camp.
4. In October 2006 the area surrounding the camp was destroyed by a fire, hence Mrs Webster's description of young sprouting Mopani trees. The blackened bones were likely to have been caused by the bush fire.
5. Professional Hunters and their clients often comment about their stay in the camp's visitors' book, including numbers of elephant and other wildlife sightings during the safari. Understandably, after seeing all the carcasses, and unaware that they had entered a legally sanctioned hunting area, the Websters will have interpreted the visitor comment of “169 elephant bulls in 8 days” as relating to the wholesale killing of these animals. The person who wrote this comment is John Moore who conducted a safari in Kazuma Forest in August 2005. The 169 elephant mentioned in his comment pertain to the number of bull sightings during his 8-day stay in the camp.
6. The dearth of elephants seen by the Websters can be attributed, not to the fact of what they interpreted to be horrific slaughter, but to the fact that at the onset of the rains the elephant move out of the area, no longer dependent on the boreholes which have been established in the Forest and which provide water to the animals in the dry season.
7. The carcass of a young elephant bull was discovered near the Botswana border along the Kazuma Pan National Park/Kazuma Forest boundary road at the start of the 2007 safari season. The bull had died of suspected poachers' gunshot wounds during the previous rainfall season. This may well be the first carcass that Mrs Webster refers to in her article.
8. Professional Hunters that regularly conduct safaris in Kazuma Forest and who have read Mrs Webster's article have expressed concern about the second sighting of a rotting elephant carcass with the skin still intact. It is mandatory for the meat and hide to be removed from any trophy-hunted animal. Mrs Webster quite rightfully mentioned in her article that the hunting season was over when her family visited the Kazuma camp in December. The last hunting safari in the area was completed in October. Perhaps this particular animal had, in fact, been poached
9. Professional Hunters in Zimbabwe work closely with the Parks and Wildlife Authority staff to curb poaching in Safari Areas, including Kazuma. Hunting parties usually travel long distances each day, both by vehicle and on foot, and often cover large areas that are not regularly patrolled by Park's scouts. Any sign of illegal hunting activities are immediately reported to the authorities. Professional Hunters and their clients occasionally encounter dangerous situations with armed poachers. During a hunting safari in Kazuma Forest in August last year, Barry Style, when out with a Californian client and a cameraman from Bloemfontein, intercepted an armed gang of five Zambian ivory poachers. A contact ensued and the poachers fled the area, dropping their packs and some of their weapons. Had the gang not been detected by the hunting party they may well have gone on to shoot or wound several elephant.
10. In her article, Mrs Webster makes serious allegations about what she believes to be the Zimbabwe government's sanctioning of large scale killing of elephants “for financial gain from the American trophy hunters' fees as they plunder the last remaining game from Zimbabwe's national parks.” There are several issues that need to be addressed here. Firstly, no safari hunting takes place within the boundaries of Kazuma Pan National Park, or any other national park for that matter. Hunting is limited to the concessions alone. Secondly, it is not only American hunters that visit Kazuma Forest, but others from Europe as well. Thirdly, the money derived from the daily rates and trophy fees in the concessions is not being siphoned off illegally, as the article seems to imply. A considerable amount of the safari revenue is ploughed back into conservation projects: maintenance of borehole pumps, employment of Forest guards, anti-poaching exercises, creation of fire-breaks, etc. The expenditure is controlled and monitored by the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe. Fourthly, the game in the area is not being plundered recklessly. CITES determines the number of trophy elephant to be hunted in Zimbabwe, and the Parks and Wildlife Authority allocate the limited permits between the numerous hunting concessions throughout the country.
11. Allegations are also made against Rob and Barry Style whose family pioneered game ranching in Zimbabwe and have a proud history of wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe. The fact that they are still managing to operate ethical hunting safaris is, in no way, an indication that they are “cronies of Mugabe” as Mrs Webster is wont to believe. Their conservation efforts are clearly documented in a number of books, magazine and news articles, and even on television programmes, including Carte Blanche and the BBC. Barry and Rob's passion for wildlife sees them currently involved in rearing two orphaned black rhinos on Buffalo Range at a considerable expense, much of which is being covered by their safari operation.
12. Mrs Webster's claim that “the game hunters have now claimed this land and game watchers are no longer welcome” is far from the truth. A number of reputable companies conduct photographic safaris and game viewing tours in Kazuma Pan National Park. They too keep an eye out for illegal hunting activities in the area. Had there been a mass slaughter of elephant in Kazuma the Professional Guides would have reported the incident to the appropriate authorities long before Mrs Webster's visit to the area. Photographic safari companies that are reliant on revenue derived from tours in to Kazuma Pan are extremely concerned about the negative implications that Mrs Webster's article will have on their business. Furthermore, the guides' frequent visits to the Park are critically important for the survival of the wildlife. Without their presence, particularly during periods when there are no legal hunting parties on the ground on the adjoining safari concessions, poaching activities could escalate.
13. Had Mr and Mrs Webster and their children stayed within the boundaries of Kazuma Pan National Park they would not have come across what to them was the disturbing site of elephant carcasses. No such sites exist in the Park, where hunting of game is banned. It is not always possible, however, to stop the poachers. Mrs Webster must realise that the Zimbabwe Professional Hunters are on her side when it comes to the preservation of the country's National Parks and its wildlife heritage. A number of people are uncomfortable with the death of animals caused by hunting. However, were it not for the presence of hunting parties in an area that is renowned for its elephant bull population during the dry season Kazuma Forest would surely be a prime target for ivory poaching activities.
It is hoped that our response to the Websters' story has helped to put the record straight and to alleviate them of their concerns for the welfare of elephant populations in Zimbabwe. We commend them for this concern and trust that they, and your readers, are now suitably informed.
The survival of the wildlife in Kazuma Pan National Park is largely dependent on the presence of tourists. As far as Zimbabwean Professional Hunters and Guides are concerned, the game is far from over. They remain dedicated to protect the country's wildlife.