Animal attacks in Mozambique’s largest game reserve kill one person and injure nine others

Since January 2024, one person has been killed and nine injured in animal attacks in the Niassa Special Reserve, Mozambique’s largest, an official source in the protected area told Lusa on Tuesday.

A ranger was killed by a buffalo and the other nine people were injured in attacks by crocodiles and hippos, according to reserve administrator Terencio Tamele.

The administrator of the Niasa Special Reserve also said that the ages of the 10 victims ranged from 11 to 75 years.

During the period under review, a total of 45 cases of attacks by wild animals were recorded in the Nyasa Special Reserve, of which 18 were elephants, Terencio Tamele said.

“The situation of conflict between people and animals in the Niassa Special Reserve is no different from what happens in many reserves in Mozambique, that is, conflict always arises during a dispute over natural resources between people and animals,” he explained.

Founded in 1960, the Nyasa Special Reserve, considered the largest in Mozambique, in the north of the country, has a vast area of ​​​​about 42 thousand square kilometers, home to a variety of animals such as elephants, buffaloes, crocodiles, lions. , leopards and rhinoceroses, as well as zebras, bulls, impalas, gray and stone goats, hippos and other species of birds and reptiles.

According to Thamele, another factor that leads to this ongoing conflict is due to riverbank farming practices, increasing elephant populations and insufficient number of rangers on the ground to mitigate the impacts.

“We have few people who can scare away animals. The population is growing, which naturally requires large areas for agricultural production, as well as the search for natural resources,” he added.

“There are not enough funds to purchase electric fences to protect agricultural land, lanterns and other materials that we use for scaring,” he said.

To end the conflict, the Niasa Special Reserve, according to the administrator, is resorting to raising public awareness about the practice of block farming to repel attacks, building barriers and electric fences to protect agricultural areas, producing animal repellents such as piri-piri, and encouraging the cultivation of crops unattractive to wild animals.

In April, Lusa reported that about 200 people had died in Mozambique since 2019 from attacks by animals such as elephants and crocodiles, according to data released by the National Administration of Nature Reserves (ANAC).

Wild animal attacks in Mozambique also destroyed a total of 955 hectares of crops such as maize and cassava between 2019 and 2023, according to ANAC’s new director-general Pezhula Kalenga.

Problems caused by the elephant, according to ANAC, occur mainly in the provinces of Maputo, Manica, Sofala, Nampula and Niassa. The effects of the crocodile and hippopotamus are being felt in the provinces of Tete, Sofala and Manica, but authorities continue to report problems with hyenas and buffalo in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza and Sofala.

ANAC is exploring the possibility of moving animals to other areas and strengthening fences or culling problem animals, among other measures.