Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

Gorongosa National Park Welcomes Wildebeest

Sep 17, 2007 - Gorongosa National Park

One hundred and eighty blue wildebeest are now safe and secure at their new home at Gorongosa National Park. They arrived September 18, 2007, from South Africa and were released into the Park’s fenced Wildlife Sanctuary where their health can be monitored by our wildlife managers and where they are better protected from predators and hunting.  These wildebeest are the most recent residents re-introduced as part of the Park’s long-term strategy to rebuild wildlife populations as a key component of the Park’s restoration.

These beautiful animals once covered Gorongosa’s floodplains in huge numbers – as many as 5,500 in the 1970s.  But the population was decimated in the 1980s and early 1990s during and following Mozambique’s civil war.  In early 2007, Park managers were aware of only five wildebeest remaining on the plains.

Over the past 15 months we have also reintroduced 80 African buffalo to Gorongosa, and the inaugural group of 50 buffalo from Kruger National Park has already given birth to at least 15 new calves this year. We aim to bring 200 or more zebra, 400 wildebeest, and 200 African buffalo to the Park during each year for the next 5 years, as well as other species now missing from the Park like roan, tsessebe, and white and black rhino.