Peace Parks Foundation is deeply involved in rewilding efforts across various national parks and transboundary landscapes throughout southern Africa. ‘Rewilding Africa’ involves relocating wildlife to restore populations, improving infrastructure, and fostering sustainable conservation to create resilient ecosystems in protected areas.
In collaboration with Mozambique’s National Administration for Conservation Areas (ANAC), Peace Parks has been actively contributing to the restoration and rewilding of Maputo National Park for a decade. “As part of the reintroduction of species,” says Maputo National Park’s veteran warden Miguel Goncalves, “we felt that now is the right time to bring in carnivores, top predators.” Far from being a box-ticking exercise, this is a finely-tuned, step-by-step process, and determined by the ‘functionality’ of each species – their precise roles and interactions in space and over time.
Building on already strong relationships with Sabie Game Park and the Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, Miguel’s team undertook the bold mission to capture spotted hyena from Sabie Game Park to be transported and released into Maputo National Park.
In the previous episode of PeaceParks.TV, we spoke to the dynamic team on the ground about why spotted hyenas were chosen for this relocation. These intelligent carnivores not only keep herbivore populations in check, but as they are resistant to microorganisms that could cause disease in other animals, they are able to scavenge and feed on dead animals, which is crucial to regulating healthy ecoystems.
Now, we join the team to get behind-the-scenes insight into the capture phase of a hyena relocation. The goal is to get the hyenas close enough for the lead veterinarian to dart them to put them to sleep before they can safely load them into specially designed containers for transportation. As hyenas are nocturnal, the team has to carry out the entire exercise at night, luring the hyenas close to the team’s temporary boma with bait hanging on a tree whilst playing recordings of distressed prey to tempt them further. Another strategy they use is to place sleep medication in bait meat and let the hyenas enjoy their meal before slowly dozing off.
The team’s hard work and long nights ultimately paid off, as they successfully managed to capture five hyenas! Visit parquemaputo.gov.mz to learn more about Maputo National Park and its wildlife revival, and be sure to follow PeaceParks.TV on your favourite social media channel for the final stage of this rewilding journey: the release at Maputo National Park.
