Mwinilunga District, Zambia
This story starts in 2015 at Cassin’s Camp on the West Lunga River, a birders’ camp in the private Nkwaji Wildlife Reserve. While guiding a birding tour there, late one night Errol de Beer was intrigued by a strange owl’s call. Too deep for an African Wood Owl, it was quite unlike anything he’d heard before. Quickly he pulled out his cell phone and made a recording. No, he hadn’t been dreaming, he really had been listening to a Vermiculated Fishing Owl, until then known only from central Democratic Republic of the Congo and further west.
The presence of the owl in Nkwaji confirmed for us that we knew next to nothing about the upper section of the West Lunga area. Over the years, the few exploratory expeditions into the region had focused on the Ikelenge Pedicle in the extreme north-west, which had previously been incorporated into the Mwinilunga District but is now a district on its own. This area includes well-known sites such as the source of the Zambezi, Hillwood Farm (also known as Nchila Wildlife Reserve) and Chitunta Plain. It also hosts a fairly substantial human population, which is a cause for conservation concern. Subsequent to Errol’s discovery, a Google Earth scan of the Kanyama-Kakoma Pedicle further to the east revealed large expanses of apparently intact grassland and mushitu evergreen forest.
This story is from the January - February 2021 edition of African Birdlife.
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This story is from the January - February 2021 edition of African Birdlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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