Food Quality in Lusaka National Park: Tracking Mortality in Black Lechwe Antelopes

ABSTRACT

Translocation is one of the fundamental tools in wildlife management but only if appropriately undertaken. In 2009, 30 black lechwe antelopes were suddenly translocated from the State House Habitat (STH) into the newly established Lusaka National Park (LNP). However, within 4 months of being translocated to LNP, 28 black lechwes (93%) died. A pathological report produced by veterinarians following a postmortem examination suggested no disease incidence affected the antelopes. The food quality of LNP was tested and compared to that in the STH and the antelopes’ native habitat of the Bangweulu wetlands (BGW) to establish if variations in food quality were responsible for the antelopes’ mortality. The findings suggest that the food quality in LNP was greatly inferior to that in STH, which could explain the observed high mortality of the antelopes in LNP. Further, the quality of food in LNP did not widely differ from that in the BGW, suggesting that the antelopes might not have survived had they been translocated to their native habitat, as they had already adapted to feeding on highly nutritious supplementary feed at the STH.

KEYWORDS:

• Lusaka National Park
• Bangweulu wetlands
• State House
• food quality
• animal mortality

Acknowledgments

We thank several ZAWA staff, especially J. Phiri and A. Liseli, for their support and contribution toward our data collection in LNP and the BGW. Special thanks to A. Mwamba and A. Daka for facilitating our permission to collect data at STH. We thank M. Banda and J. Nshindano of the University of Zambia for their contribution toward laboratory work for this research.

Funding

The study was self-sponsored.

Additional information

Funding

The study was self-sponsored.