The Greater Nsumbu Ecosystem

The Site:

The Greater Nsumbu Ecosystem forms the southern edge of Lake Tanganyika and Zambia’s northernmost landmass, centered around Nsumbu National Park and Tondwa Game Management Area. With a diversity of unique habitats, Nsumbu is a recovering ecosystem, and our collaborative work is to assist in the research, monitoring, and restoration of carnivores in this special region.

Our Work:

We have been working in the Greater Nsumbu Ecosystem since 2017, and partner with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) and DNPW to support long-term research and monitoring programmes that provide evaluations and information for adaptive management strategies for their ecosystem recovery efforts. The work is in collaboration with Oxford University’s WildCRU, facilitated by ZCP collaborator Dr. Egil Droge, and focuses on Nsumbu National Park and the adjacent Tondwa Game Management Area (GMA). Preliminary results indicate a significant increase in wildlife sightings on these surveys in the recent year, both through camera trapping and direct observations. The biggest increases in sightings were in the GMA, a promising result for restoration of this key buffer zone to the national park. Long-term camera trap surveys conducted by the DNPW-FZS-ZCP teams in the Greater Nsumbu Ecosystem continue to document the potential for Nsumbu to become a wildlife stronghold under long-term recovery efforts. While big cats continued to be undetected in the ecosystem through these camera trapping efforts, promising patrol reports indicate that leopard may still be residents in this recovering system.