By Felix Matasva, Manicaland Correspondent
FOUR buffaloes, which are part of a stray herd spotted early this week in the Marange area of Mutare West, Tuesday stormed into communities along the Save Riverine, NewZimbabwe.com can report.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) rangers, in collaboration with a team from Mutare Rural District Council, were deployed to try and contain the situation in the area and managed.
They encountered one buffalo bull, which charged at them before it was taken out by an alert ranger.
The ZimParks Manicaland office confirmed the development Wednesday in a supplementary notice and public alert posted on a social media group, advising villagers to exercise extreme caution when moving around communities in Tonhorai area of Chiadzwa.
“ZimParks Rangers and MutareRDC yesterday (Tuesday) spent the whole day tracking the buffaloes’ spoors with no joy. They carried on with monitoring until 3pm and managed to see the herd. After assessment they scared the buffaloes, but one charged against them and our team managed to destroy it,” reads part of the public notice by ZimParks.
“Four of them went away towards Save River. Communities around the Save Riverine are being informed of the threat of unstable herd of buffaloes. Disturbed buffaloes may cause harm if intercepted by people. In the same vein villagers are encouraged to report these buffaloes for swift reaction.”
The buffaloes are suspected to have strayed from Save Valley Conservancy which hosts ‘The Big Five’.
Last week, a herd of elephants strayed into the area before imparks rangers put down two of them to avoid a possible case of human–wildlife conflict.
ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo Tuesday told NewZimbabwe.com that there is need to balance the human and wildlife population in order to avert incidents of human-wildlife conflict in Zimbabwe.
According to statistics from ZimParks in 2021 71 deaths were while 50 were injured in incidents of human-wildlife conflict in areas dotted around the Southern African nation.
In 2020 60 deaths and 40 injuries were recorded giving an impression that cases of human-wildlife conflict maybe on the rise.
