Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park: Difference between revisions

'''Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park''' (Sotho: ''Musi oa Thunya'' ['''Mosi wa Tunya'''] "''The Smoke Which Thunders''"), is an [[UNESCO]] World Heritage site<ref>[http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=509 Unesco World Heritage List website accessed 1 March 2007]</ref> that is home to one half of the Mosi-oa-Tunya ''— 'The Smoke Which Thunders' —'' known worldwide as [[Victoria Falls]] on the [[Zambezi River]]. The river forms the border between [[Zambia]] and [[Zimbabwe]], so the falls are shared by the two countries, and the park is 'twin' to the [[Victoria Falls National Park]] on the Zimbabwean side.<ref name="Spectrum">Camerapix: "Spectrum Guide to Zambia." Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.</ref>

The wildlife park includes tall riverine forest with palm trees, miombo woodland and grassland with plenty of birds, and animals including [[Angolan giraffe]], [[Grant's zebra]], [[warthog]], [[sable antelope|sable]], [[Common eland|eland]], [[African buffalo|buffalo]], [[impala]] and other antelope. Animal numbers fell in droughts over the last two decades. The park contained two [[southern white rhino]] which are not indigenous and were imported from South Africa - they were both poached during the night of June 6, 2007. One was shot dead and got its horn extracted, not far from the gate and the other received serious bullet wounds but has triumphed against all odds and still lives in the park under twenty four hours surveillance. As of June, 2009 the number of southern white rhino in the park has been increased to five animals with plans to introduce further animals in due course.<ref>ZAWA 2009.</ref> The indigenous (black rhino) was believed extinct in Zambia but has recently been reintroduced in a pilot area). [[African elephant]]s are sometimes seen in the park when they cross the river in the dry season from the Zimbabwean side. [[Hippopotamus]] and [[crocodile]] can be seen from the river bank. Vervet monkeys and baboons are common as they are in the rest of the national park outside the wildlife section.<ref name="UNEP"/>