Zambia’s astounding wildebeest migration

The Serengeti-Mara migration may be more famous, but the Liuwa Plains wildebeest movement is no less staggering, says Geoffrey Dean

Geoffrey Dean, Wednesday January 20 2010, 5.22pm, The Times

As we flew low in the ultralight aicraft over the huge expanse of Liuwa Plains in the remote far west of Zambia, we could see thousands of wildebeest heading south in their quest for the fresh short grass that recent seasonal rains had teased from the sandy soil. It was a steady procession rather than the more frenetic rush associated with the annual pilgrimage in the Serengeti-Mara, but this central African migration is second in size only to that of its more celebrated East African cousin.

The long odyssey of the last few weeks from north-western Zambia and Angola has swelled the wildebeest population to some 37,000 in Liuwa Plains, a figure that does not include the several thousand new-born calves that have been dropping since mid-November.

Herds reach up to three or four thousand in this little-known, isolated park near the Angolan border that is the size of Sussex. From a vehicle, the flatness of the plains allows you to see the wildebeests six miles away, the limit of the horizon on land, their long lines looking like trees. The landscape and skies are vast, enhancing the feeling that Liuwa is one of Africa’s last great unspoilt wildernesses.

“You can see so far all around you that you can actually pick up the earth’s roundness,” Robin Pope, one of the most respected guides in Africa, said. Your immediate reaction is “surely not?” but when you look again, you realise he is right.

Africa has many magical corners, but this park is a gem in the continent’s crown, its shortage of trees counterbalanced by a plethora of lagoons and swathes of yellow conyza wildflowers. This natural beauty, not to mention the phenomenal birdlife the reserve attracts - we ticked off 110 species in five days including as many as 24 on one lagoon alone - is enough to make photographers drool at the mouth.

Pope’s encyclopaedic knowledge of birds affords him almost instant powers of identification, and I chuckled at his description of a spurwing goose coming in to land sounding “like someone walking in wet jeans”.

Liuwa’s very inaccessibility has also ensured it has been rarely visited in the last decade. Last year, however, Pope’s safari company returned to begin operations again at the only camp in the 2,100 square mile park (a self-catering site excepted). We had Liuwa completely to ourselves, seeing not one other vehicle in our time there.

There is another attraction - potentially box-office - that may make the park famous before long. Poaching was so bad in the late 90s that wildlife numbers plummeted, but since the African Parks Foundation spread its protective cloak over Liuwa in 2003, game is prospering again.

Lions were hunted so remorselessly that by 2003, the park was left with just one, a female. Her story, movingly captured in a National Geographic documentary shortly to be released called “The Last Lionness”, may well charge the emotions of audiences in the same way that Born Free did.

*Cheetahs have flourished in the absence of lions*

For more than five years, this remarkable lionness, aka Lady Liuwa, survived on her own, without any contact with her own species. Often chased off her kills by large numbers of hyenas, sworn enemies of lions, her miserable loneliness led her to seek, of all things, human company in the park’s camp. Given that man wiped out the rest of her pride, the irony of this is supreme.

“She would come into the camp and roll on her back,” said Sims and Alan Mwaiba, two cousins who have been permanent camp attendants at Liuwa for more than a decade.“She would follow us around the camp, never getting closer than about 15 feet but often staying from around 3pm till 10am the next morning. She was never remotely aggressive unless she felt we were too close to her when she had brought a kill into camp. She did that so that hyenas would not challenge her for it.”

News of Lady Liuwa’s plight reached a Namibian wildlife film-maker, Herbert Brauer, who made regular and lengthy visits to the park to shoot his documentary. “It took me three years to understand how lonely she really was,” Brauer, who formed a special bond with his subject, said.

“She had no other reason to visit us other than for our companionship. Sometimes, she would lie next to my tent at night. I would go to sleep and the next morning she was still there. It was amazing to experience this mutual trust with a wild predator that had only bad experiences with human beings. But, as much as I cared for her, I knew I must keep my distance. She scratched the trees in camp and once destroyed the seat in my Landcruiser. She needed a mate of her own.”

*Lady Liuwa mating with one of the translocated males*

Now, she has not one but two. In May this year, African Parks, after a failed attempt in 2008, successfully translocated a pair of young male lions from another Zambian national park, Kafue, to Liuwa Plains.Since then, Lady Liuwa has stopped visiting the camp and mated with both lions, most recently last week. If she gives birth next year, her special genes will be passed on, but even if she does not, the legend of Liuwa Plains will be part of natural history lore.

Robin Pope’s tips to see the Liuwa Plains migration:- there are two opportunities each year, the first in the second half of November/first half of December. By Christmas, access within the park is either difficult or impossible in many parts due to flooding from seasonal rains. The second time is in May/June when water will have receded and camps will be open again for the mass movement back north.- those staying at the self-catering camp will need to seek information on herds from the African Parks officials at Kalabo- Liuwa is reached either by a nine-hour drive from Lusaka, or by a two-and-a-half hour charter flight to Kalabo from Lusaka followed by a two-hour drive. A proposed new airstrip in the park (expected completion October 2010) would allow direct charter flights from Lusaka.

Need to know Geoffrey Dean flew to South Africa with Virgin Holidays, which offers daily flights to Johannnesburg and Cape Town from London Heathrow (www.virginholidays.co.uk or call 0844 5573859).He then travelled on to Zambia with Imagine Africa, through whom stays with Robin Pope at Matamanene Camp in Liuwa Plains can be booked (www.imagineafrica.co.uk or call 020 7622 5114). It costs from £375 per person per night including food, drinks, game drives and walks. Minimum stay four nights.

*Grey-crowned cranes with young wildebeest*