Sep 1, 2926 |
Maputo National Park recorded 33 319 animals in the 2025 aerial count, more than double the 13 727 counted just two years earlier, in 2023.
According to Maputo National Park (PNAM), co-managed by the National Administration for Conservation Areas (ANAC) and the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF), the results confirm an extraordinary recovery of the park's large mammal populations.
The total population of large herbivores has been growing steadily since the first counts were carried out in 1972, making this one of the greatest wildlife recovery successes recorded in the country.
In a press release, the park indicates that species such as reedbuck, zebra, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippopotamus and nyala, among others, show positive trends, demonstrating that the ecological conditions of the area continue to favour the reproduction and survival of wildlife.
This result is due to the reintroduction and population reinforcement programme carried out in recent years, with technical support from the Peace Parks Foundation and funding from the MozBio programme, which made it possible to re-establish species that had previously been reduced or eliminated and to restore the ecosystem's natural ecological processes.
The park also attributes this recovery to strengthened law enforcement, the fight against poaching, improved management of natural habitats, permanent scientific monitoring, investment in conservation infrastructure and strengthened collaboration with local communities and national and international partners.
The growth in populations has also turned the park into a source for restocking other protected areas in the country. According to the Mozambique News Agency (AIM), the administrator of Maputo National Park, Miguel Gonçalves, revealed that more than 5 388 animals of 16 different species have been reintroduced since 2010, and that this year the park transferred 400 animals to Banhine National Park, in an operation coordinated by ANAC with support from PPF.
This growth follows a broader trend across the network of parks managed by ANAC and PPF. According to the Peace Parks Foundation, an aerial count carried out in 2023 in the Maputo, Zinave, Banhine and Limpopo parks already pointed to widespread growth in wildlife populations in these protected areas of Mozambique.
Photo: Maputo National Park
