ZimConservation

GOVERNMENT has aborted a wildlife trade deal with the secretive Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) amid widespread condemnation from pressure groups, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt. Sources close to the development said the planned shipment of US$23 000 worth of wildlife to the DPRK in a deal conservationists termed President Robert Mugabe’s “Noah’s Ark”. It has been blocked after local and international natural resources campaigners criticised the destined living conditions of the animals at Pyongyang Zoo. Read more: http://allafrica.com/stories/201006180808.html

HARARE, Zimbabwe — The state wildlife authority says poachers killed 10 elephants in a single attack in southeastern Zimbabwe. All the tusks were removed, leaving the carcasses on a river bank. Caroline Washaya-Moyo, an official of the wildlife department, says heavy caliber cartridge cases were found at the remote scene in the Gonarezhou national park on Zimbabwe’s border with Mozambique. Investigators reported the animals were shot and the ivory was removed in what appeared to be a “quick and professional” onslaught in a single day last week. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igdv-WMzwr-A-sGzIFQf-Six8pSAD9G8CMT00

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Starvation Island in northern Zimbabwe is living up to its name for the first time in 50 years as rising lake waters have submerged grazing land for hundreds of animals, conservationists say. Rescuers here are holding exhausted impalas by their horns just to keep their heads above water after the hungry, exhausted animals desperately tried to escape the flooded island. Starvation Island was once a staging post for rescued animals, named after many perished from hunger there during the building of the massive Kariba hydroelectric dam. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gLSXss_4LW15GwXoFpuiy2NNT-uwD9G37S280

Pretoria – A South African woman who worked at Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage in Zimbabwe was killed when she was attacked by an adult lion on Tuesday morning. Robyn Lotz, 26, from Pretoria, whose life’s mission was caring for and rehabilitating neglected and injured wild animals, was attacked after a worker presumably didn’t close the gate to the lion’s cage properly. Read more: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Lion-kills-SA-woman-in-Zim-20100602