13/04/2022
Poachers decimate the Vic Falls warthogs.
By Rutendo Mapfumo
Resulting in some tourism workers losing their jobs prior to the yearlong Covid-19 national induced lockdown, Victoria falls warthogs which were a spectacle in the tourist town are being snared by poachers.
The warthogs would roam from one corner to another and were a spectacle to the arriving tourist.
A Victoria Falls based Conservationist Blessed Gundo said most of the warthogs in the resort town has been poached.
“Due to COVID-19, many of the warthogs within the town of Victoria Falls have been poached. One of the surviving families (4 of them) were in the bush park and sadly 3 of them were snared. Thank you to concerned residents of Vic Falls who heard the warthogs squealing, and chased off the poacher, who had already butchered one of the pigs.” said Gundo.
Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust and other conservationist were called in to the scene and two of the three warthogs were immobilized and released from snares.
Gundo indicated that warthogs in the resort where visible in every corner but due to incapacitation caused by loss of jobs, snaring and poaching has become major activities in the city leading to few warthogs being visible roam around freely.
“People depended on tourism and everything was down during the peak of the pandemic, no source of income and no food for the families” he said.
Meanwhile, Gundo urged community members to re-establish long forgotten support for wildlife conservation.
