Matusadona National Park
Matusadona National Park is a game reserve park in northern Zimbabwe. The park takes its name from the local Matuzviadonha Hills and is a stunning combination of flat plains and rugged mountain country. The meaning of “Matuzviadonha” is “falling dung” - which was probably a comment on the sight of elephants dropping dung balls as they struggled up the hills. The name is often abbreviated as "The Matus" in colloquial speech by locals.
Matusadona boasts a unique combination of pristine and rugged wilderness, together with the water frontage of Lake Kariba. The north of the park is within the Zambezian and Mopane woodlands ecoregion, while the south is within the Southern Miombo Woodlands ecoregion. It is one of the last remaining sanctuaries of the endangered Black Rhinoceros. It was once commonly recognized as having the second largest concentration of wild lions in Africa after Ngorongoro Crater. Within a 450km2 area there was +100 lions feeding on a bounty of buffalo. Sadly the buffalo began to disappear after losing vital grazing areas to a rise in the level of Lake Kariba upon which the park is set on. This in turn saw the lions begin to decline. By 2004 a study estimated a mere 28 lions remained in the area but no research was available on their viability and/or any other threats the population may be facing. The population is still remaining at a low density and is therefore susceptible to a variety of environmental and human induced pressures.[1]
Its relatively poor accessibility by road and extremely harsh internal network of roads keep the crowds and traffic low - it is accessible by boat from Kariba and from the Bumi Hills airstrip.
Matusadona National Park is one of several protected wildlife areas with shorelines on Lake Kariba. Some 338,000 acres (1370 km²) in area, it is bounded on the west by the Ume river and on the east by the Sanyati River. Two-thirds of it lies south of the Zambezi Escarpment formed by the 1968 foot (600 m) high Matusadona Hills from which it takes its name.
Many of the animals rescued during Operation Noah when Lake Kariba was filling (following the construction of Kariba Dam) were released into Matusadona, which then held strong populations of most mammals occurring in the Zambezi Valley. Buffalo were especially prominent and herds of up to 1,000-strong often congregated along the shoreline in the dry season.
Coordinates: 16°50′S 28°35′E / 16.833°S 28.583°E