Overview: Zimbabwe and Its Animals
Zimbabwe is a landlocked southern African nation with extraordinary wildlife heritage — home to the world's second-largest elephant population, significant lion, leopard, and wild dog populations, and iconic landscapes including Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls. It is also a country that has experienced severe economic crises, land reforms, and political instability that have profoundly affected both human wellbeing and animal welfare over the past two decades.
Zimbabwe presents a complex animal welfare picture: world-class conservation successes exist alongside severe welfare challenges for livestock, working animals, and even wildlife under drought and economic stress. Understanding both dimensions is essential for effective advocacy.
~100,000
African elephants (largest population after Botswana)
~5M
Cattle estimated (down from ~12M pre-crisis)
>14M ha
Protected area coverage (37% of land)
Elephant Welfare: A Complex Management Challenge
Zimbabwe's Elephant Population
Zimbabwe has one of the world's largest elephant populations — estimated at 100,000+ — primarily concentrated in Hwange National Park and surrounding areas. This population significantly exceeds the carrying capacity of protected areas, creating challenging management decisions with profound welfare implications.
Drought and Water Provision
Drought welfare crisis: Zimbabwe's elephants are highly dependent on artificial water points (boreholes and pumped water) in Hwange, particularly during the dry season when natural water sources disappear. During severe droughts — which are increasing in frequency and intensity with climate change — pump failures and water shortages cause elephants to travel extreme distances, suffer dehydration, and in severe cases die. The 2019 and 2024 droughts saw hundreds of elephants die of thirst and starvation in Hwange, with harrowing images of collapsed elephants drawing international attention.
Zimbabwe Parks' Management Approach
The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) manages the elephant population with limited resources. Management tools have included:
- Contraception programs (immunocontraception of some females)
- Translocation of herds to areas with lower elephant density
- Sales of live elephants to other African countries and to overseas zoos (controversial)
- Historical culling programs (now suspended under international pressure)
- CITES ivory trade proposals (Zimbabwe regularly advocates for controlled ivory sales, which remain banned)
Human-Elephant Conflict
Growing conflict: As elephant populations exceed park capacity, elephants increasingly move into farming areas outside parks, raiding crops, destroying infrastructure, and occasionally killing people. Retaliatory killing of elephants occurs. Communities living near parks often see elephants more as threats than assets — undermining long-term conservation support.
CAMPFIRE program: Zimbabwe's Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) is a pioneering community-based natural resource management program that shares wildlife revenues (including hunting fees) with rural communities. Evidence suggests it creates community incentives for wildlife conservation — though controversy around trophy hunting remains significant.
Livestock Welfare Under Economic Stress
The 2000s Agricultural Collapse
Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform program from 2000 onward caused catastrophic disruption to the agricultural sector. Many commercial farms — including those with substantial livestock herds — were seized. Loss of experienced management, veterinary services, and feed supply chains caused severe welfare problems for livestock during this period, including disease outbreaks, malnutrition, and abandonment of animals.
Current Livestock Situation
Zimbabwe's cattle herd has never fully recovered from the land reform crisis and subsequent droughts. Current challenges:
Recurrent drought mortality: Zimbabwe experiences severe droughts with increasing frequency. Livestock deaths during droughts are enormous — entire herds can be lost. The 2015-16 El Niño drought killed an estimated 200,000+ cattle. Animals die slowly of thirst and starvation over weeks during these events, representing massive acute welfare crises.
- Chronic underfunding of veterinary extension services limits disease control and welfare advice reaching smallholder farmers
- Traditional cattle herding on communal land creates overgrazing and nutritional stress
- Limited access to veterinary drugs and treatments for routine conditions
- Working animals (donkeys, horses) used for transport face overloading and inadequate care
Working Animals
Donkeys are widely used in Zimbabwe for transport, water collection, and agricultural work — particularly since the collapse of mechanized agriculture in many areas. Welfare concerns include:
- Overloading — donkeys carry and pull loads significantly exceeding welfare limits
- Inadequate water and feed provision
- Poor harness fitting causing wounds and sores
- Minimal veterinary care for injuries and disease
- Draught cattle similarly face overwork conditions
Brooke Zimbabwe: Operates working animal welfare programs reaching rural communities with veterinary care, training on load management, and harness fitting. Has documented significant welfare improvements in communities served.
Wildlife Welfare Beyond Elephants
Lions and Large Carnivores
Zimbabwe hosts significant lion populations including in Hwange, Mana Pools, and other parks. Issues include:
- Human-lion conflict with retaliatory killing when lions prey on livestock outside parks
- Wire snares set for bushmeat incidentally capture lions and other carnivores causing severe injuries and death
- Trophy hunting of lions continues under government permits — welfare concerns around hunting practices and wounded animals
African Wild Dogs
Conservation success: Zimbabwe hosts one of Africa's largest African wild dog populations. The Painted Dog Conservation organization (based in Hwange) combines anti-poaching, snare removal, rehabilitation of injured wild dogs, and community education. Wild dog snare rescues in particular — removing snares from entangled dogs and providing veterinary care — address a significant welfare problem.
Poaching and Snaring
Ongoing threat: Bushmeat snaring is widespread in communal areas surrounding national parks. Wire snares cause severe suffering (see Wildlife Snare Welfare page). Zimbabwe Parks struggles to maintain adequate anti-poaching patrols due to underfunding.
Legal Framework
| Law | Coverage | Status |
|---|
| Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (Chapter 19:09) | General anti-cruelty provisions | On books; rarely enforced |
| Parks and Wildlife Act | Wildlife protection, conservation areas | Moderately enforced in national parks |
| Animal Health Act | Livestock disease control | Enforcement capacity limited |
Enforcement gap: Zimbabwe's animal welfare laws are among the more comprehensive on paper in sub-Saharan Africa, but enforcement is severely constrained by government underfunding, corruption, and competing priorities. A law without enforcement has minimal welfare impact.
Key Organizations
- ZimParks (Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority): Government body responsible for national parks and wildlife management
- Painted Dog Conservation: Wild dog research, rehabilitation, anti-poaching, community education
- Elephants Without Borders: Cross-border elephant research and advocacy including Hwange populations
- Brooke Zimbabwe: Working animal welfare programs
- WildCRU (Oxford): Wildlife research in Hwange including lion ecology and human-wildlife conflict
- SPANA Zimbabwe: Working animal welfare and veterinary services
- Bumi Hills Foundation: Lake Kariba area conservation and welfare work
Priority Areas for Welfare Improvement
- Drought response planning: Pre-positioned emergency water and feed supplies for drought events, with rapid response protocols — addressing Zimbabwe's most acute recurring welfare crisis for both wildlife and livestock
- Snare removal scaling: Expanded funding for snare patrol teams in communal areas surrounding national parks
- Working animal veterinary access: Expand Brooke Zimbabwe's reach and fund additional paravet training in rural areas
- Human-elephant coexistence: Investment in chili fencing, beehive fencing, and other non-lethal deterrents to reduce conflict and retaliatory killing
- Veterinary extension services: Rebuilding rural veterinary capacity to reach smallholder farmers with livestock welfare and health support
- Community conservation incentives: Strengthening CAMPFIRE and similar programs to ensure rural communities benefit economically from wildlife conservation