Tag Archives: Zimbabwe

ZimParks relocates 100 elephants, 70 giraffes, 10 lions due to drought

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Harare, Sep 15 (IANS) Amid an ongoing drought, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) said it has relocated 100 elephants since July and a significant number of other wild animals from the arid southern parts of the country to the north where there is better vegetation and water.

ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo told Xinhua news agency on Wednesday that the Authority issued permits for the transfer of 2,650 animals from the Save Valley Conservancy to three national parks in the north namely Tsapi, Chizarira and Matusadonha.

The animals targeted for relocation include 400 elephants, 2,000 impalas, 70 giraffes, 50 zebras, 50 buffaloes, 50 elands, 10 lions and 10 wild dogs.

The relocation exercise began in July and so far, 100 elephants and a “significant number of other wild animals” had been relocated, he said.

He said the main reason for relocation was to depopulate overcrowded areas and create a balance in the ecosystem.

Climate change induced-drought resulting in loss of habitat, food, and water was posing a risk to the animals and the only way to protect the habitat was to make sure that we create a balance by relieving pressure on overcrowded areas, Farawo said.

Zimbabwe has become prone to frequent droughts in recent years due to climate change, posing the risk of hunger not only to humans but also to wild animals.

The country has an overpopulation of elephants numbering over 100,000 against an ecological carrying capacity of 45,000.

The jumbos are located in four main ecological zones, and two of the zones are overpopulated.

An elephant herd is spotted near nyamandhlovu pan, a popular water-hole in the Hwange National Park, Matabeleland North Province, Zimbabwe

An elephant herd is spotted near nyamandhlovu pan, a popular water-hole in the Hwange National Park, Matabeleland North Province, Zimbabwe

The four zones are North West Matabeleland where the country’s biggest game park Hwange is located; South East Lowveld, home to the second biggest park Gonarezhou; as well as the Sebungwe region and mid Zambezi in the northern part of the country.

This is not the first time that ZimParks has moved the animals.

Lions

In 2018, it moved 100 elephants from the South East Lowveld to mid Zambezi while plans to relocate 600 elephants in 2020 were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The relocation program is an expensive exercise and ZimParks has in the past lamented inadequate funds to successfully carry out the program.

Discovery of Mbiresaurus gives birth to new theory on dinosaurs in Supercontinent Pangea

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The discovery of Mbiresaurus in Zimbabwe has led the group of researchers to propose a new theory on dinosaur migration, as Africa was once part of the supercontinent called Pangea.

The climate across ancient Pangea continent is thought to have been divided into strong humid and arid latitudinal belts, with more temperate belts spanning higher latitudes and intense deserts across the lower tropics of Pangea. Scientists previously believed that these climate belts influenced and constrained animal distribution across Pangea.

“Because dinosaurs initially dispersed under this climatic pattern, the early dispersal of dinosaurs should therefore have been controlled by latitude,” said Christopher Griffin, who graduated in 2020 with a Ph.D. in geosciences from the Virginia Tech College of Science. “The oldest dinosaurs are known from roughly the same ancient latitudes along the southern temperate climate belt what was at the time, approximately 50 degrees south.”

Missing Middle bridged

Griffin and others from the Paleobiology and Geobiology Research Group at Virginia Tech purposefully targeted northern Zimbabwe as the country fell along this same climate belt, bridging a geographic gap between southern Brazil and India during the Late Triassic Age.

Moreover, these earliest dinosaurs were restricted by climatic bands to southern Pangea, and only later in their history dispersed worldwide. To prove the claim, the research team developed a novel data method of testing this hypothesis of climatic dispersal barriers based on ancient geography and the dinosaurian family tree. The breakdown of these barriers, and a wave of northward dispersal, coincided with a period of intense worldwide humidity, or the Carnian Pluvial Event.

After this, barriers returned, mooring the now-worldwide dinosaurs in their distinct provinces across Pangea for the remainder of the Triassic Period, according to the team. “This two-pronged approach combines hypothesis-driven predictive fieldwork with statistical methods to independently support the hypothesis that the earliest dinosaurs were restricted by climate to just a few areas of the globe,” Griffin said.

Brenen Wynd, also a doctoral graduate of the Department of Geosciences, helped build the data model. “The early history of dinosaurs was a critical group for this kind of problem. Not only do we have a multitude of physical data from fossils, but also geochemical data that previously gave a really good idea of when major deserts were present,” he said.

“This is the first time where those geochemical and fossil data have been supported using only evolutionary history and the relationships between different dinosaur species, which is very exciting,” he explained.

 

New dinosaur Mbiresaurus, a boon for Zimbabwe and Virginia Tech paleontology

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The unearthing of one of the earliest dinosaurs ever found is a major win for the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe.

The Mbiresaurus skeleton is almost complete, making it a perfect reference material for further finds. It is also the first sauropodomorph find of its size from Zimbabwe, where most of the earlier sauropodomorph finds are usually of medium- to large-sized animals.

“The discovery of the Mbiresaurus is an exciting and special find for Zimbabwe and the entire paleontological field,” said Michel Zondo, a curator and fossil preparer at the museum.

Darlington Munyikwa, deputy executive director of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, said: “The unfolding fossil assemblage from the Pebbly Arkose Formation in the Cabora Bassa Basin, which was hitherto known for paucity of animal fossils, is exciting. A number of fossil sites [are] waiting for future exploration were recorded, highlighting the potential of the area to add more valuable scientific material.”

Much of the Mbiresaurus specimen is being kept in Virginia Tech’s Derring Hall as the skeleton is cleaned and studied. All of the Mbiresaurus skeleton and the additional found fossils will be permanently kept at Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

“This is such an exciting and important dinosaur find for Zimbabwe, and we have been watching the scientific process unfold with great pride,” said Moira Fitzpatrick, the museum’s director. She was not involved in the study. “It has been a pleasure to work with Dr. Griffin,and we hope the relationship will continue well into the future.”

The discovery of Mbiresaurus also marks another highpoint for the Paleobiology and Geobiology Research Group. In 2019, Nesbitt authored a paper detailing the newly named tyrannosauroid dinosaur Suskityrannus hazelae. Incredibly, Nesbitt discovered the fossil at age 16 as a high school student participating in a dig expedition in New Mexico in 1998.

“Our group seeks out equal partnerships and collaborations all over the world and this project demonstrates a highly successful and valued collaboration,” Nesbitt said. “We will continue studying the many fossils from the same areas as where the new dinosaur came from and explore the fossil beds further.”