The Zimbabwean wildlife authority is investigating a suspected case of lion poaching after three carcasses of the big cats were discovered in the country’s biggest wildlife reserve on October 22.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) spokesperson, Tinashe Farawo told Down to Earth (DTE) that their rangers patrolling the Hwange National Park had discovered carcasses of the three lions that had their heads and feet cut off.
“We are investigating a suspected case of lions poaching in Hwange. The suspects used a heavy calibre rifle before they chopped the heads and feet of the lions,” Farawo added.
According to wildlife conservation groups, lion bones are in high demand in Asian countries such as China and Vietnam where they are used in unscientific traditional medicine.
Lion and tiger bones are also used to make products like bone wine, which is very popular among wealthy consumers in these countries. These products are falsely believed to be good for treatment of ailments such as arthritis and rheumatism, and most users are also steeped in the superstitious belief that these concoctions can boost their libido.
Surveys conducted in these countries have shown that most consumers would prefer their big cat products to be sourced from the wild rather than from farmed animals.
Lion body parts are sometimes also used by some local traditional healers.
Farawo said that game rangers were scouring the vast park to see if more lions could have been poached.
The Hwange National Park which is spread across 14,600 square kilometres is home to half of Zimbabwe’s 100,000 elephants. The park hosts over 100 mammal and 400 bird species, including 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores.
It is part of the five-nation Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA), which is comprised of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe — the five southern African nations that have common international borders along the Okavango and Zambezi River basins.
According to Farawo, their spoor and camera trap survey indicate that there are over 500 lions in Hwange alone, a population that the authority considers “healthy”.
Poaching is largely under control in Zimbabwe largely thanks to the country’s shoot-to-kill policy in its wildlife reserves.
According to statistics from Zimparks, 19 lions were poached in the five-year period from 2019 to 2023. In the same five-year period, 142 elephants and 52 rhinos were also lost to poachers in the country’s various parks.
The worst poaching disaster that the country suffered in recent memory took place a decade ago when poaching syndicates targeting elephants used cyanide to poison watering holes and salt pans at the peak of the dry season, killing more than 300 of the jumbos and thousands of other animals.
The authority, which works with a number of partners in combating poaching, has also introduced drone technology in its operations.
In Zimbabwe lion populations face a threat emanating from trophy hunting, where tourists pay up to $40,000 to shoot these big cats.
Zimbabwe subscribes to the principle of sustainable utilisation of wildlife. This is largely achieved through the allocation of harvesting quotas for hunting, live sales and management purposes.
For Zimbabwe and other southern African countries that are home to huge wildlife numbers not able to trade in wildlife products due to a CITES ban, revenue from trophy hunting constitutes the bulk of the funds that go towards meeting their wildlife conservation costs.
Conservation efforts also involve communities living close to wildlife conservancies who also benefit from a share of proceeds from trophy hunting and wildlife safari operations.
South Africa is moving to close hundreds of lion and tiger farms where these cats have for years been bred for their bones and for purposes of “canned” trophy hunting. The move is a result of an investigation that exposed gross cruelty in the process in which the cats are bred and harvested. Some conservationists fear that the closure of the farms could result in increased poaching to feed the demand for body parts of these big cats.