Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park

Mosi Oa Tunya is a national park in Zambia, bordering Zimbabwe and sharing with it the world-famous Victoria Falls. Locals call the waterfall itself "Mosi-Oa-Tunya", which translates as thundering smoke, hence the name of the park. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The territory of the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park is quite small and covers 66 ^km2 and is located 20 kilometers downstream of the Zambezi River from the waterfall. The southwestern border of the park is adjacent to the city of Livingston, in the northwestern part there is an entrance to the park - this is the so-called wildlife section, the other entrance is at Victoria Falls.

The wildlife park includes a coastal forest of palm trees, the Miombo savanna forest, as well as spacious meadows where you can meet birds and animals grazing on them. Well, among the animals there are antelopes, zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, warthogs, elephants. There are practically no predators here, so some organizations are developing programs to bring lions here. In the Mosi-Oa-Tunya Park, you can also see rare white rhinos in this area - they were completely exterminated by poachers. Therefore, two white rhinos were brought here in 2007, one of them was soon shot by poachers near the entrance to the park, the other was seriously injured. By 2009, the number of rhinos had increased to 5 individuals, and all of them are under round-the-clock surveillance. You can meet hippos and crocodiles on the river.

There is an ancient cemetery in Mosi Oa Tunya Park, where the first settlers were buried. It arose here after the settlers set up camp on the banks of the Zambezi, but soon many fell ill with malaria and died, the rest left this place.

Rainforests grow in the Victoria Falls section of the park. In the forests there are rare plants for the area, such as mahogany and ebony, wild date palm, lianas. Antelopes and warthogs can often be seen near the waterfall, and about 35 species of birds of prey are also found in the park.