Mana Pools National Park - Zimbabwe

Mana Pools National Park is a WORLD HERITAGE SITE based on its pure wilderness and beauty, It is home to a wide range of mammals, over 350 bird species and aquatic wildlife.

Mana Pools National Park is rated the 5th best park in Africa by Gateway magazine. It is a

-Renowned World Heritage Site for its pure wilderness and beauty-(still has dinosaur spoors)

-TFCA- Transfrontier Conservation Area

-Ramsar Site

-IBA – Important Bird Area.

-MIKE Site-Monitoring of the Illegal killing of elephants.

-Bio-Sphere reserve- One of the world’s wildest and preserved natural ecological areas

During the rains, most of the big game animals move away from the river and into the escarpment. They start returning to the riverine areas from around April, as the pans in the bush  

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dry up. As the year progresses, increasingly large herds of elephants and buffalos are seen, as well as kudu, eland, waterbuck, zebra, impala, and many other antelope. The game is very relaxed about people on foot, making Manapools one of Africa’s best national parks for walking safaris

The Park is at the Centre of a network of protected areas in Zimbabwe which stretch from Kariba to the Mozambique border. Mana pools are located in Mashonaland West Province and fall under the ambit of the Hurungwe Rural District Council for higher level administrative purposes. There are over 20 000 km² of wildlife protected land in the vicinity of Mana Pools. It is in the Middle Zambezi Valley covering an area of 2196 square kilometers (848 square miles) extending from the Zambezi River in the north to the escarpment in the south. A timeless wilderness considered by many to be the Jewel of Zimbabwe and a Treasure for Africa.

Featured Attractions
The park offers unique guided and self-guided walks amongst many wild animals, excellent canoeing and river fishing

It’s an area of outstanding natural beauty and phenomenal wildlife. Here the Zambezi River, flowing slowly eastwards for thousands of years, has left behind the remains of old river channels forming small seasonal ponds and pools spread over an area of several hundred square kilometers. These extend several kilometers back from the river where, on fertile terraces huge mahogany and acacia trees cast luxuriant shade.

Today Manapools, one of Zimbabwe‘s four World Heritage Sites, is the stage for one of Africa’s greatest natural spectacles – a classic theatre of the wild, attracting hordes of animals during the long, hot African summer, drawn by the abundance of water and the lush grazing along its banks.

Lots of zebras, kudu, eland, impala, and other antelope species flourish among which the lion and the leopard, the hyena and wild dogs find easy pickings.

The sanctuary, one of the only two pockets of nyala in the country, is also home to over 16 000 buffalos and more than 12 000 elephant –one of Zimbabwe’s largest concentration. Many female elephants in the region do not have tusks and are much more aggressive than those with tusks.

Along the river bank where one of the greatest varieties of bird life in the world flourishes, hippos warm themselves in the morning sun. Later in the day, they keep cool by remaining all but submerged in the river, sharing their hidden sandbanks with silent and almost unseen crocodiles.

More than 350 bird species are enough to draw the breath of any ornithologist. Its banks flutter with Goliath herons, Egyptian and Spurwing geese, cormorants, storks, brilliantly coloured bee-eaters, and kingfishers.

Vultures, plovers, Nyasa lovebird, yellow-spotted nicator, white-collared pratincole, Livingstone’s flycatcher, banded snake-eagle, and the cliché symbol of Africa, the black and white fish eagle, haunt the riverine forest and mopane woods.

In the river, tiger fish, bream, tilapia, vundu, nkupi, chessa, electric fish, eel fish, cornish jack and lung fish sport and prey upon one another.

The richness of the forest trees and plants is the vital link in Mana Pools chain of continuity. The apple ring acacia keeps the elephant herds alive during the fierce October-November dry season. These handsome trees paint a unique picturesque landscape which this park is famous for.

Mana Pools national park offers a unique unguided walk in the wilderness, it allows experiencing nature at its best. Guided/unguided canoe is one major attraction along Zambezi River.