Serval Translocation - Munda Wanga Environmental Park to Bangweulu Wetlands

In mid-October, the first of three servals left Munda Wanga Environmental Park in Lusaka and traveled to Bangweulu Wetlands, where they were released near Nkondo headquarters.

Early in 2008, Munda Wanga received a call that a leopard cub had been found and needed fostering. Being a sanctuary and having rehabilitated a number of animals before, the rehabilitation protocols started and everyone was ready to receive the leopard. The disappointment was slight when the Wildlife Officer arrived with a box that clearly contained a serval cub instead of a leopard cub! The disappointment was soon gone as the cub was very cute and needed a lot of attention. Through the great efforts of the Munda Wanga staff, the cub flourished and was soon showing improvements. A month later, two other serval cubs joined the scene and a full nest was being fostered at Munda Wanga.

Not having the species at the wildlife park, it was decided to keep them to be able to show this impressive species to the visiting public. It had to be regularly explained that these were not cheetah or leopard and that they were not cubs but fully grown servals. They proved to be a real crowd-puller and excited the educators to tell more about the differences within carnivores.

After a year, they were fully grown and had settled into their open topped enclosure with grass, trees, a den and platform. The male serval, which was the first to arrive, had courted with the female from the second set. Her brother was taken to another enclosure to avoid inbreeding and fighting between the two males. The couple produced a litter and since the plan was to release them back to the wild, a hands off approach was taken. The downside of this was that it resulted in only one of the three cubs surviving. A year later another cub was born bringing the total to 5 Serval cats at the Wildlife Park, the time to look at alternative places to house these cats had arrived.

African Parks and the Zambia Wildlife Authority work together with the community to conserve two prime conservation areas in Zambia - Liuwa Plain in the west of Zambia and Bangweulu Wetlands in the north. The team in Bangweulu managed to demonstrate that through community involvement the development of this area based on a wildlife economy can be successful. The area close to the HQ in the project area is an ideal spot to release the servals. Here they will have the ideal habitat of grasslands, open woodland savannah and marsh areas where they will find plenty of prey to feed on.

The three servals will be released using a soft release approach - they will be held in an enclosure for the first week, thereafter their enclosure will be opened but they will still be fed at irregular times inside or in front of their enclosure. The supplement feeding will gradually be reduced merely as a method of monitoring their presence.

We are confident that this approach of reintroducing the servals into the wild will be successful so that they may have the opportunity to live the lives of normal wild servals.

For more updates and information about some of the success stories from the Munda Wanga Environmental Park, visit www.mundawanga.com or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.