Drought Forces Zimbabwe to Sell Animals

WORLD

If you’re in the market for purchasing wildlife, you could get a good deal in Zimbabwe. The drought-racked country has put its wild animals up for sale in a bid to ease financial pressure on its national parks. (International Business Times)

Learn a little about droughts with our “Droughts 101” video.

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers’ Toolkit, including today’s quick-and-easy MapMaker Interactive map of Zimbabwe’s national parks.

This beautiful giraffe will have to stretch even further for freshwater at Wankie National Park amid southern Africa’s devastating drought. Photograph by Volkmar K. Wentzel, National Geographic.
This beautiful giraffe will have to stretch even further for freshwater at Wankie National Park amid southern Africa’s devastating drought.
Photograph by Volkmar K. Wentzel, National Geographic.

Discussion Ideas

  • A devastating drought is forcing Zimbabwe’s national parks to sell their priceless, emblematic wildlife, including buffalo, elephants, leopards, lions and rhinos. What weather phenomenon has contributed to southern Africa’s drought?
    • El Niño, a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, has also contributed to reduced rainfall across southern Africa.

 

Where are Zimbabwe’s national parks? How are they impacted by climate and precipitation patterns? Where are the country’s big cat populations? Use today’s MapMaker Interactive map to find out. Why are national parks being particularly hard-hit by the drought?
Where are Zimbabwe’s national parks? How are they impacted by climate and precipitation patterns? Where are the country’s big cat populations? Use today’s MapMaker Interactive map to find out.
  • Why are national parks being particularly hard-hit by the drought?
    • Some national parks, including the enormous Hwange National Park, have no sources of freshwater outside precipitation—no lakes, no rivers.
    • Zimbabwe’s troubled government allots little funding to national parks. In addition, as the drought continues to plague the region, the government is prioritizing funding food security for its human population.
    • Zimbabwe’s largest trading partners, South Africa and China, are experiencing economic downturns of their own and cannot be relied upon to support Zimbabwe’s national parks.
    • Zimbabwe’s national parks actually have an overabundance of wildlife. For instance, according to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, “[a]bout 54,000 of Zimbabwe’s 80,000 elephants live in the western Hwange National Park, more than four times the number it is supposed to hold.”

 

 

 

TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT

International Business Times: Zimbabwe’s Wild Animals For Sale: National Parks Forced To Sell Wildlife Amid Drought

Nat Geo: Zimbabwe’s National Parks map

Nat Geo: Droughts 101

Nat Geo: What is a drought?

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